Sweet and Corny
by Clichesbullet
Summary: The Stolls have many problems: they're in a town the size of a peanut where people don't even know the meaning of "Wi-fi"; surrounded by cereal and cattle everywhere. Katie Gardner, on the other hand, only has two problems: Travis and Connor Stoll.
1. Act 1

**Sweet and Corny:**

**A/N: **_This was originally a one shot and I still see it as one. The only reason it's been split is to make it look less huge than it really is. As it was written as one shot, all parts will most likely be short and the space between chapter will be somewhat long. My initial idea is to post a new part every week or so and there will be eight of them all refereeing to classic country songs. This is my first attempt at a non-camp PJatO fanfic so I hope I can make things work out. _

_**Act 1: **_

_**The Devil Went Down to Georgia (and decided to pay me a visit after that)**_

_**Katie:**_

I had very good expectations for my first day of school thatautumn, I really did. I was a senior, I was alive(which is a major pro on this list since I could have easily died last summer during the final battle against the titans) and, on top of it all, I had woken up to realize I was having an amazing hair day. I didn't even have to blow it dry or anything in the morning; it just laid down flatly over my shoulders like a beautiful chocolate brown frame for my cheeks. I simply _knew_ I was about to face a wonderful first day of school.

I couldn't me more wrong though. And that was clear the second I walked into Garden City High that morning:

"Hey, Katie, you're looking nice today."

Ok, maybe it wasn´t _exactly_ on the first second since the day sort of started out just fine with Beau Higgins greeting me as soon as he climbed out of his truck and saw me.

"Oh, hey, Beau." I answered him warily.

You see, Beau is one of those guys that are so handsome, they could make a rainbow feel insecure; it's not a very manly metaphor but it'll work for now. He and I have been close friends since middle school and, ever since that first time I lent him my eraser, I have known that I shall one day Mrs. Beau Higgins. I'm not trying to overreact here but this is my last chance so I have made my mind and, by the end of this senior year, Beau and I will finally become an item.

This, of course, if I somehow manage to gather the courage to tell him about my feelings.

It's not like I never had any chances; we've had next door lockers ever since we were 14 and he's always nice to me; he knows my whole family (well, except for the people on my mother's side, for obvious reasons) and he's always very gentle towards me.

Also, it's not like our whole town is, you know, big or anything so we all know details about each other's life and guess what? Beau is always mentioned by everyone as one, nice, hard working young man and none of his ex-girlfriends seem to have anything bad to say about him either – not that he has had that many girlfriends; he's an old fashioned romantic.

"You look tanned, as usual. Did you have fun at camp?" He asked me with his glorious smile. Beau is one of those big, tall, bulky guys that at first can make you a little scared and even come out as a little too serious but he´s actually very sweet and outgoing. A real gentleman, if you ask me.

"Oh" I answered him while trying to look charming as I balanced my notebooks and heavy textbooks. "Camp was…normal." Ok, that was a bit of an understatement. "We just did regular camping stuff, ya know? Bonfires, singing…"_ Fight for our lives against mythological beasts;_ I completed in my head. "That sort of thing." I shrugged.

"Hm." He seemed to consider what would be an appropriate answer for what I had just said –he always takes people's feelings very seriously. "Can't say I understand what you mean, I've never been to summer camp before. I have camped, of course…" He added as if he was apologizing for something. "But I like the woods, you know? I've never been anywhere near a beach camp." I felt my heart melting at this:

"I love the woods!" This came out a little too passionately for my taste but whenever someone declares their love towards nature, I just feel all fuzzy inside, especially when it's Beau. "I only go to a beach summer camp because my father makes me!" And, of course, because I have to keep my body trained for monster attacks but, hey, I didn't need to tell him that.

Beau smiled at me and, without offering; he just grabbed my heavy textbooks and said:

"C'mon, I'll walk you to your locker."

This conversation lasted exactly two minutes and fifteen seconds and was, possibly the only good two minutes and fifteen seconds of that day – besides the few seconds that took me to realize my hair was looking great earlier that morning, of course. Walking side by side with Beau as he told me about his own summer vacation made me smile from ear to ear and I could feel my heart pumping blood in my chest so fast I was having trouble speaking:

"Aren't you getting old for camp, though?" He asked me as we reached our hallway. "I heard something about these big city camps forbidding some older teenagers to go back and stuff like that…"

"Hm, yes…" I scratched the back of my head. In a town so small such as Garden City, keeping secrets can be the hardest thing to do – keeping a secret as big as mine and for so long is nearly impossible; I had to work very, _very_ hard to keep my _camp slash demigod slash secret identity slash monster snack _life as a separated thing from my normal day to day life and, as if that wasn't enough, I have always tried to exceed myself on said normal life what means I have always done my best and not _once_ complained about having to work too hard; I'm leader of the student's board, I'm the school's teenage counselor, I'm head of the school paper (though, obviously, I can't exactly _write_ any good texts) and I'm also on the cheerleading squad and in most of the school's social groups and clubs as well as the homecoming dance and parade committee _and_ I'm a straight A student –I didn't use to be 'till I found out the reason why I had trouble at school, but once I figured out the source of my trouble, I started working my way around it – that´s what I am: a hard worker. And I work very well:

"Well, I'm a counselor now so, it's like a job and all that."

"Oh, I see." He answered dully and, that, ladies and gentlemen was the end of all good things and the start of my living hell because, as soon as Beau said this, he checked the paper they had given us at the entrance and said: "Well, we are here; this is your locker."

"Thanks!" I answered cheerfully as I grabbed my books again and tried the new locker combination. As I was still organizing my belongings, I noticed Beau walking away and asked way too desperately to sound cool:

"Where are you going, pal?" I even called him "pal" – gigantic proof of just how _not_ cool I sounded. He turned back on his heels and pulled his backpack a little higher on his back, beaming sheepishly at me for no reason – though I do suspect he felt sorry for how stupid I was acting:

"Hm, I…They've changed my locker."

"What!" I snapped as my jaw dropped. No, no this couldn't be happening. I had such good hair for this day – it should be a sign of good things, not of _locker changing_.

"Yeah…" He bit his lower lip very uncomfortably. "They got me a locker next to Mary's.

"M…Mary?" The reason I stuttered is because, as in any small town of the United States, there were tons of Maries everywhere around and even though our town hardly reached the scale of 200 inhabitants, I still knew at least eight Maries around our age. "M…Mary who?" The reason I kept stuttering, however, was because there was only one who represented any danger to my perfect senior year plans.

"Mary Sue." _That _one.

You see, I'm not even joking about her name: she really is named Mary Sue – and she _is _all the things you'd expect from someone with this name. Perfect grades, cheerleader, kind, nice, funny…And she has perfect hair everyday! Mary Sue didn't represent a threat because I thought she'd go for Beau, nor did she hate me and would say bad things about me to Beau the problem was that Mary Sue…ugh!

Ok, remember how I said I've always tried to exceed myself in life? ThatI'm always studying and working hard and being professional and engaged socially because that's what I do? Well, those things made me gain a certain reputation as "perfect" and "flawless" around some and, if I ever got admirers, it was all due to this effort and, if I was ever to get Beau's attention it'd be thanks to it as well.

Now, if Beau ever gets to have a close friendship with Mary Sue, then it's the end of the line for me and you know why?

Imagine yourself married and aging, sitting peacefully on the porch of your house as your grandchildren play – now, play in your heads the memories of your high school years, the way you met your wife, the day you two shared your first kiss, the day you proposed, your wedding, your honeymoon…Imagine the perfect girl, the one you'd want by your side forever…Did you do it?

Now imagine the same thing again but add a mythological blood thirsty beast for each especial moment you picture in your head.

Can you see Mary's clear advantage on me here? Can you see why I was terribly doomed and why my life had just been ruined and, most of all, can you understand why I suddenly felt as if thirty nine of the most vicious specimens of bees had just stung me in the heart and how I could feel nothing but numbness all over and a stinging pain in my chest?

"Oh, great! I heard Mary is…pretty clean." Well, I had to fake a smile anyway because I don't think Beau would take me bursting into tears as a normal thing.

"Yeah, I've heard about that too…" He said chuckling and, with a final wave, he turned around the hallway corner not without saying "See you at English?" before disappearing completely. I just nodded and waved 'till he was completely out of sight.

Then I stuck my head inside my new locker and yelled my guts out.

Luckily for me, it was still too early and the hallway was empty – or so I thought because, as I still had my head between my books and gym clothes, I heard the slamming sounds of the two lockers' doors from both my left and right being opened. I immediately stopped screaming (as said before, I have a reputation to keep) and took my head out to take a look at my new neighbors.

Life was no longer perfect, I knew that already; I also knew that I had a bad, bad year ahead of me and I was honestly facing the possibility of having lost all of my chances of telling Beau just how I felt and, at that exact moment I felt like, no matter how bad my situation was, compared to what I was already facing; it couldn't get that much worse.

I was certain of how naïve I had been when the two metallic doors slammed shut and, for a second I believed I was seeing double 'cause I had right next to each side of me two faces that were very similar to each other.

Faces with matching evil smirks and perfectly white teeth, two sets of curly brown hair that went with two pairs of brown eyes that shone with malice right along with curvy raised eyebrows and, as if I still believed I was having a nightmare (most likely stroke induced) – the two people standing next to me said in unison with perfectly harmonized voices:

"Hey there, neighbor!"

It was official: my good hair day was a sign of the Apocalypse.

_**Travis:**_

Hello, I'm Travis Stoll and I am, most certainly, a bad person.

The main reason I can say that for sure is because I happen to take other people's pain as my favorite sort of entertainment. Not all people of course; mostly people I hate – however, I do enjoy it three times harder when I happen to be the cause of their pain what, I suppose, kind of does turn me into, well, evil.

"W…w…" This unarticulated attempt at speaking came from Katie Gardner – my long time summer camp friend (and I'm using the term "friend" here rather loosely) - who seemed to be undergoing some sort of aneurysm as she processed the idea of having both Connor and me standing there. "W…what…." Finally; one complete word! She's getting better at this!

You see, as I said before, I'm not a good person and this, I'm afraid, means that, out of things, I enjoy causing people trouble the most. And, of all people, Katie is the one I enjoy causing trouble to the most therefore…

"W…what…are..?" Katie wasn't even moving. Ever since she had noticed my brother's face and mine, she had stood static, her hands on her locker, her eyebrows raised, not blinking and with her jaw hanging as if she had just spotted two old nuns giving people lap dances on the street. Sure, she was shaking a lot, but I'm pretty sure shivering doesn't exactly count as moving.

"Hey there, Katie! Did you miss us?" Connor, my younger and less attractive brother said with a smirk. He's a bad person as well.

"Wha…" She started to mumble again and I sighed impatiently.

Regardless how much I was enjoying her agony (and that was a lot) there was just so much confusion a guy could take.

"You want to know why Connor and I are here." I said rolling my eyes as I crossed my arms and she nodded in silence. Her knuckles were turning white and it was actually pretty cute how overly worked up she was getting – it made me want to make her even more miserable.

"Well, we've grown tired of big city life and we decided to move here."

Connor had to grab her because she started to lose balance and I think she blacked out for a second or two.

"He's kidding, he's kidding." My brother told her as he waved a hand in front of her. Katie regained balance and once her face turned pink again instead of pale white she grabbed my shirt's collar and said with a maniac voice that made me sincerely miss her startled self of just a few seconds ago.

"What are you two doing here, Travis Stoll?" She enjoys calling me by my complete name; I think she finds it more threatening or something. She should know better than threaten me – if anything, it only makes me more eager to annoy her.

"Oh, great, your brain is working again." I commented lightly and she pulled me closer a giant scowl on her face.

"Why are you two trying to ruin my life?" She asked again even more dangerously.

"Sheesh." I sighed. "Someone forgot their happy pills this morning. C'mon, Katie, do you honestly believe Connor and I would come all the way from Long Island to this minuscule town in South Dakota just to get a few laughs out of your face?"

She just kept her eyes at me, eyebrows raised.

"Ok, I don't blame you." I admitted shrugging. "But it's not the case; this time, at least.

Chiron sent us on some jobs around the country this autumn, ya know? Find some demigods; check if they're really determined, if there aren't any monsters trying to eat innocent kids…This whole "determine your kid right now" Percy asked for is sort of giving some new kids a hard time."

"So you guys are here looking for demigods?" She asked for the first time with some real interest but I waved her off with a big smile:

"Of course not! Have you _seen_ your town at all, Katie? This place hardly showed up on our GPS! We are here because we were around and we've finished our job and we know you live here so…"

Katie's jaw dropped again in pure despair. You know how some people almost get killed while climbing mountains but they keep doing it anyway? I understand them completely now.

It's all about the view you get at the top; it makes it all worth it.

Just like Katie shocked expression at that moment – who cares if Connor and I had gotten lost three times on our way to that lame town, or how we hadn't seen not one good bathroom in months – Katie's catatonic response was worth it all.

"So you_ are_ here to destroy my life!"

The two of us smirked at her and tried our most sheepish look ever:

"Now, now, Katie, don't be silly – who says we are here because of you? What if we happen to have a secret admiration for small towns, corn and people named Dwayne or Mandy May?"

We had to dodge the backpack she threw at us.

Truth is I couldn't exactly tell why we were here for real yet. I wasn't really sure just when I had decided it would be a good idea to see Katie or as to why I had considered seeing her in the first place – it was all very confusing to me still. All I did remember was mentioning it to Connor and how he had agreed that we should go to South Dakota soon – just like that. And now, there we were.

Katie finally let go of my shirt and proceeded to heel all the way towards a bench where she laid down and closed her eyes.

"Uh…What is she doing?" Connor whispered in my ear and I shrugged:

"No idea." I answered him and then, in a louder voice, I asked Katie: "Are you ok?"

"Your voices are still here." She told us in a much more controlled tone – even though there was still somewhat of a desperation feeling to it. "But I know this is just a nightmare and like every other nightmare I have ever had, I'll just close my eyes and go to sleep while dreaming and, when I wake up here, I'll also wake up in real life and you guys will be gone."

Connor and I exchanged glances.

Then we pinched her.

"Ouch!" She yelled while sitting down and rubbing her arm, her eyes popping open in surprise.

"I know it's hard to believe, but we are not a fruit of your teenage fantasies, Katie. We are real." Connor said with a smile.

"I'm going to puke." She answered him, holding her head between her hands.

I think the reason I enjoy making fun of Katie so much is because she's just so serious all the time, I know I'll always get the best reactions from her – it's hard for a person like me not to try and do awful things when I know Katie will react so bad to basically everything I tell her.

"Why?" She asked and I'm not sure the question was directed to me and Connor or to the gods in Olympus so I decided it was better to not say anything:

"Do you really want me to believe that you guys simply decided you wanted to do some sort of exchange student experience in South Dakota of all places and that you have no personal reasons at all to do it?"

Once again, Connor and I exchanged glances and I answered:

"South Dakota is a cool place, Katie. There's Mount Rushmore and…" Well, basically that's all South Dakota has, really. Someone told me they used to call it "The Sunshine State" but I don't think it's wise to believe them. I looked at Connor for help but all he did was shrug and pout his lips. I'm telling you, younger siblings are just as useful as a rotten potato salad sometimes. "Uh…and the Corn Palace! I can't wait to meet the Corn Palace!"

"The Corn Palace?" Katie asked and she sounded like she didn't believe a word I was saying but can we really blame her?

"Hey, Katie!" We were all interrupted by a cheery voice coming from the other end of the corridor. "Where have you been?" A fair haired girl ran towards us with a smiling face and greeted us politely turning to Katie. "I've been looking for you all over! Say goodbye to your friends, we have a club meeting in five minutes!"

How could someone possibly be that agitated so early in the morning? Just to hear the girl speak was getting me tired.

"So who are your friends?" The girl asked Katie who was now looking much like a zombie. I think that seeing one of her friends in the same room that we were in made her finally realize that we were there for real and she was now coping with reality. "No, wait, don't tell me!" She raised a hand to prevent Katie from speaking which wasn't necessary at all in the first place. "I think I've heard something about new students while I was at home room."

Katie snapped out of her trance:

"New students?" She asked. "No, no. That doesn't make sense. Connor and Travis are just passing by and…" Her eyes tripped towards our faces and, with smirks that went from ear to ear we showed her our backpacks.

"Janice…" She whispered to the girl who had been talking to us. "Could you please take me to the school nurse?"

As we watched Janice help Katie to the nurse's room, Connor turned his face to me and said:

"You're a bad person, dude."

"I know…"I said smirking. "Did you see how cute she looked when she almost fainted?"

"You're so weird."

**A/N:** _Slow beginning but this story is intended to have a romantic vibe rather than a funny one though I hope this gets hilarious at some point xD!_


	2. Act 2 Travis

**Sweet and Corny**

**A.N.: **_Just realized both Travis and Katie's part are very long for this act, so I split it in two parts. I need to fix some stuff on Katie's part but I'll try posting it by Sunday night or maybe later today (it's already Saturday morning here). Thanks so much for the awesome feedback, I had no idea you guys were waiting so vehemently for this, lol. I even got a review from Cap'N'Cupcake who's the writers of some of the best Tratie stories here (go check her work, people). I feel so important, you all get hugs today! Please review, so Katie's part can come flying at the speed of light people!_

_P.S.: Remember that Travis' POV is TRAVIS'S pov thus it has nothing to do with my own. I particularly would love to have a countryside life. I have an inner redneck, I tell you all!_

**Act 2**

**Working Nine to Five (and some unexpected extra hours as well)**

**Travis**

I _hate_ Garden City.

I hate its stupid completely white population, I hate its smell of apples, corn and hay, I hate the fact that I almost got run over by a cow last week (yes, I'm a son of Hermes but that cow was _fast_) and I hate the way people stared at me as if I was an alien when I asked where I could find an wi-fi sign. On the other hand, despite of how much I hate this abusively small town, I absolutely _love_ being here.

It's a bittersweet feeling, you know?

The reasons I love being here are many (mostly having something to do with my Big City boy ways being considered extra hot here and the way all girls are all over me )and all of them somewhat related to the look of utter desperation on Katie's face whenever I see her.

It all started that first day here, a few hours after our first encounter when she realized that, even though Connor was a year younger, I was just her age thus we'd be haring most of our classes together.

"Isn't that great, Katie?" One of her friends asked her. I don't really understand the gossip wire here yet but somehow in the meantime between Katie going to the Nurse's office and our first class, not only had the news of Connor's and mine arrival to town, as well as the fact that we had known Katie from before had spread and, Gods know how, developed into the following statement: ´

"Now you and your boyfriend can spend a whole lot of time together…"

"_What?" _Katie and I asked the same thing, both very startled. Though she was shocked by the idea. While I was just astonished by how things were actually going even better than what I had planned.

Katie glared at me with narrowed eyes and said:

"Did you have anything to do with this, Travis Stoll?"

I only wish I had – it was too ingenious:

"Nope." I said grinning from ear to ear and taking a sit next to her on the most extravagant way I could. "But maybe this is a good thing, my love, maybe we should just let them know how we feel already." I took her hand and kissed it (Katie turned a greenish shade of white). "I want people to know I only have eyes for you." Every single girl in the room – besides my behated - sighed and said "aaaawn".

"I think I'm having a stroke." I heard Katie mutter under her breath and chuckled. She heard me. "Stop lying, Travis!" She yelled at me and then turned to her classmates. "He's lying; we are _not_ boyfriend and girlfriend!" The girls all started whispering and gossiping and I stood up at once:

"She's right." I said in my most serious voice and everyone looked at me. "Katie and I are not boyfriend and girlfriend."

They all went silent. I glanced back at Katie for a second and her eyes were shinning with hope. I'm sure that, even if it was just for a second, she was considering the idea of forgiving me for all those years of emotional pain. "I'm sorry I came here, Katie." I told her, staring inside her eyes.

"I…It's ok." She told me clearly overwhelmed by my attitude. I then gave her my most diabolic smile and went down on one knee:

"But I just can't fake it anymore. I did come here because I have feelings for you!" I heard a unanimous sound of inhale of breaths coming from all the females in that room (including Katie, though I'm pretty sure her inhaling had nothing to do with being surprised in a good way by me being romantic).

"Awn, Katie, Travis came all this way just to see you!"

"Kiss him, Katie."

"Yes, Katie, kiss him!"

Unfortunately to me, the teacher walked in just then and we had to turn face her. I had to take the chair right in front of Katie and as Mrs. Benedict turned her back to us to write some stuff on the board; she leaned forward to whisper in my ear:

"You know what, Travis? I'm almost kind of glad you are here right now because one of these days, you'll be walking home from school and an innocent looking poison ivy will grab you by the neck and _throttle _you!" She made a pause and I swallowed my own saliva. "Believe me; I can make it look like an accident."

I regained composure before turning around to answer her with a smile and fake teary eyes:

"That's hurtful, Katie. You shouldn't say that to someone who just told you they are in love with you."

She kicked me under the table – it was totally worth it.

It's been over a month since that and, even though I did have to hide from a couple of very violent looking bushes once or twice, I still think that seeing Katie's distraught everyday pays off most bad things. And all other bad things, as I said before, are paid off by the gigantic pile of secret admirer's mail that I find every morning before and after class in my locker.

"Your pile is still much smaller than mine though." My stupid sibling commented feeling smug for no reason at all as he checked his own pile of mail one morning.

"The only reason I receive less romantic notes, Connor, is because girls here are supporting my attempts to get Katie's heart." I explained matter-of-factly. As usual, he rolled his eyes at me and grinned in a skeptical way:

"Is that so?" He crossed his arms. Honestly, Connor is a good guy and all but he's so grumpy during mornings I often see my thoughts going down the fratricide road where I usually picture a very Romulus and Remus scenario minus the creation of a big empire in the end of it. "And why don't you simply tell them you were joking about liking Katie being the reason that brought us here and just find yourself a girlfriend?"

I stared at him in silence for a while. I knew that was what he wanted me to do from the beginning. My brother likes to lecture people – I think it's because he's so very seldom right that, whenever he gets the chance, he embraces it with his dear life.

"Unless, maybe…"There he goes. "You're doing what you do best that, by the way – in case you don't know – is using sarcasm and humor as your only way to express emotions alas creating an everlasting benefit of doubt aura that has, along the years become your comfort zone." I think he kept talking after that but I just tuned out, honestly.

"Dude, I have no idea what you're talking about." I said rolling my own eyes at him and trying to fit my gym clothes inside the locker (it's not like I ever bothered taking the text books with me to school). "Where do you even get these ideas?"

"It's common knowledge!" He answered me sounding offended.

I raised both my eyebrows at him:

"Acquired everyday by watching chick flicks and _telenovelas_ with Chiron and Grover at the Big House." He completed sheepishly.

"You are a disgrace to the family."

"You are my only family."

"I seize my case."

"Whatever." He waved me off impatiently. "It doesn't change the fact that you are an idiot who has not yet admitted to himself he's in love with a girl even though he came all the way from New York to_ this_" He gestured everything around him frantically as to symbolize the city. "and keeps using sarcasm to tell people the complete truth."

"Whoa, whoa, wait a minute there, kiddo." I interrupted him. "Are you trying to accuse me of what I think you are trying to accuse me of?"

"I think I've been pretty clear."

"We are _not _here because I _like_ Katie, Connor."

"Oh, really?" His sarcastic expression made him look a lot like an owl I saw on a picture once. "Then _why_ are we here, Travis?"

I was going to answer him, I swear but we got interrupted – and that's the only reason I didn't answer him, really. A blond girl from my class – I didn't really know her name for sure; to me, every girl in my class was either Katie or "Random Blonde with two names" – came walking towards us with a huge smile on her face and she even winked at Connor (he truly did get most of the fans due to everyone "shipping" Katie and me).

"Good morning, boys." Her smile was full of white, white teeth and her hair was so high it was just a few inches away from touching the ceiling. "How'ya'all this morning?"

Yeah, we had trouble understanding that at first too but we soon got used to their dialects. Connor and I even have fun coming up with demigod versions to their expressions every once in a while. You should have seen Katie's face the first time we yelled _"HADES YEAH!"_ after we got invited for dinner at her place.

_Good times._

"Hey there, Cindy." I didn't know what her name was but there was a 99% chance it was either Cindy or Mary something.

"I'm Mary!" Oops.

"Sure, Mary, I got confused because…My brother was just talking about Cindy…" I gestured towards Connor who looked a little upset by me using him as an excuse.

"You were talking about Cindy?" Mary looked angrily at Connor who, just like me had no idea why the girl was angry at him for. "You know I_ hate_ Cindy."

Connor acted with fake surprise:

"You _hate_ Cindy? I'm so sorry, I had no idea, baby." My little brother was becoming a player, how come? The world is truly coming to an end – the Maya people were right! "But are we are talking about the same Cindy?"

"It's not Cindy Mabel?" Connor and I exchanged glances – we had never heard of that girl before.

"No, no – not Cindy Mabel."

"Cindy Lou?"

"Do you hate Cindy Lou?"

"No, I'm ok with her."

"Then, yeah, Cindy Lou." Connor and I said in unison.

"Oh great."

And then there was silence. I wish I could say this is the first time I had to endure this sort of conversation but sadly, it's not. People at school here only talk about people, football season or – worst of all - agriculture. And this is as deep as it goes.

"Mary…" I tried.

"Yeah?"

"You wanted to tell us something or did you come here just to, you know…be random?"

"Oh, right!" They weren't all as slow as this Mary, of course. I had met a lot of bright, great people. They didn't have wi-fi signs but they weren't all that bad.

"Football season is about to start."

Yup, she had gone there just to be random after all.

"And?"

"Well, you know, practices are starting too. We were wondering if you guys wouldn't want to come and watch." You see how she said "we"? People here also only walked in groups and spoke in plurals ._Togetherness_…yuck.

"Practice?" I asked her, making a face. I wasn't really sure I wanted to spend the rest of my afternoon watching sweaty guys wrestle each other, I mean – I didn't have to visit South Dakota for that, Ares Cabin already provided that sort of entertainment all year round. "I don't know, Mary…" I looked at Connor looking for some help and he nodded in agreement (I know you think I'm a hypocrite but _our_ togetherness is cool, ok?):

"Yeah, Mary, hairy and sweaty men is a "no, no" for us." Mary looked a little startled:

"Hairy and sweaty men?" She asked. "Why would we have hairy and sweaty men at cheerleading practice?"

"Cheerleading?" It was my turn to be startled. "Like in girls in pleated skirts doing jumping jacks?"

"Yeah, 'cause girls in pleated skirts doing jumping jacks is a "yes, yes" for us!" Connor said terminating for all any doubts that he was still a geek and will never, _never_ be a player.

"Well…Not _jumping jacks," _Mary answered sounding overwhelmed by our sudden excitement over the idea. "But we will have Katie cheering." She added with a malicious smile at me.

"We will be there!" I answered with a similar grin.

"Good!" She told me and then her face became preoccupied. She bit her lower lip and said. "By the way, could you guys do me a favor?" We remained quiet and let her speak, last guy who asked us a favor wanted us to fight 'til death against an army of titans and mythological creatures so, ever since then, we have become quite precocious about this whole doing favors deal. "You see, it's this town's tradition to have the first cow born in September stolen so we can have it as our mascot. Usually we have a baptism ceremony at the first cheerleading practice of the season but…"

Our silence was our only wise option.

"Well, turns out this year the cow was born one of the biggest farms in town and none of our quarterbacks is brave enough to try to steal it…And Katie mentioned you two are like ninjas….Always sneaking up on her and hiding in places…"

"You want us to steal cattle for you?" I asked, confused.

"Father would be so proud." Connor said, brushing away a fake tear.

"Shut it, big boy." I said interrupting him and turning to Mary again. "What do we get from this?"

"Only gratitude I'm afraid." She answered. "And respect."

I stared at her:

"We will do it." I said, finally. "But not because we want your respect, just because this town bores me and I need some thrills."

"Great!" Mary said, throwing her arms around me and giving me a kiss on the cheek. "You guys are the best! Here, this is the address! We will be waiting for you later this afternoon for the cow's baptism."

She then walked away, whistling happily. I turned to Connor:

"What kind of weird town has a baptism ritual for a mascot baby cow which, by the way, has to be stolen?" Connor shrugged:

"This one, apparently." And then his expression changed. "But you are the one who said we needed to come here, remember?" As before, I didn't say a word, waiting for his lecture to start. "You were the one who went all crazy over coming here for no reason at all, or did you forget?"

"Shut up." I said already tired of his attempts to make me admit something that wasn't true.

"You are Katie Crazy."

"I most certainly am not!"

"Is too!" Romulus and Remus invaded my head again.

"Am not!"

"Gods, you two sound so mature." Katie's voice interrupted us immediately as she arrived to put her things on her own locker. For some reason, she always looked sad when she came to open her locker. I'd be ok if that sadness was caused by my presence but it didn't feel like that at all.

"Oh, hey there, Katie, you look like butt" Ladies and gentlemen, Connor Stoll, my brother who will die single. "Are you nervous with the start of cheerleading practices?"

Katie seemed to snap out of her sadness induced trance as she heard his words:

"How do you know about practice, Connor?"

"Oops, sorry, _gotta_ go." I interrupted their conversation, pulling Connor by his wrist and leaving Katie all by herself on the hallway.

"Why did you do this?" My brother asked me totally oblivious.

"Cause I don't want her to know we know about her cheerleading."

"And that's because...?"

"The element of surprise, of course!" I snapped at him. "It won't be fun showing up there by surprise if she's not _gonna_ be so shocked she will fall from their human tower or something like that."

"Wouldn't that be dangerous?" Connor asked.

"Sure, I guess so." I answered feeling only remotely guilty. "But you're not seeing the bigger picture here."

"No, you moron,_ you_ are not seeing the bigger picture here." And, with this last remark, he simply stormed off to his class, leaving _me_ alone in the hallway. Connor really should stop watching those chick flicks and soap-operas; they're getting to him.

**A.N.: **_What's up with the freakish cow ritual, right? All the answers lie in Katie's part of this Act which will probably not be as long but it will have a lot of deep, meaningful stuff (Whoa) and Taylor Swift references. Sorry for this part not being the best or anything it's just a necessary part._


	3. Act 2  Katie

**Sweet and Corny**

**A/N:**_ Due to being busy with college, sick because of the braces and socially occupied with family parties and going clubbing, this was extremely delayed. I'm impressed by you guys' urge to read it, lol, and I hope this ENORMOUS part will suppress all of your needs. I happen to think this part is particularly funny and romantic so I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. And, since it's a long part, make sure it lasts cause God knows when you'll get the next one! In case of doubt, please send me a tweet or check my deviantart for journal updates –it's an easy way to keep track of things, and if the waiting is killing you, make sure you check my other PJatO comedy: "Calamity Clarisse". Now, good luck reading this immense thing, pals!_

**Act 2: Working Nine to Five (and some extra hours as well)**

**Katie**

I fell from the human tower.

You'd think that would have made my day a bad day, but no, not really. Truth be told, considering the last events I have been forced to endure, falling from the human tower was almost a bright a side.

Yeah, you get the picture.

It all started, obviously, when the two brothers of doom moved into my small city with no other reason but to ruin my life and, ever since, they have been literally stalking me to basically everywhere I go. Travis is the worst, of course, he being in all of my classes and sitting right next to me (often snoring loudly); he also enjoys having lunch at the same table as me and my friends (who not only welcome him and his brother as they apparently seem to think they are the coolest thing since the invention of irrigation) and, since he can't eat in silence, he likes to complain about my healthy eating habits as he chew on his fries and sips from his coke. Ugh!

Earlier this month, both Stolls decided they wanted to get to know the town and started to – literally – follow me around up and down asking me questions and mostly complaining about how much they missed the big city, seeing different types of people, eating McDonalds, Wal-Mart…And I think Connor even cried a little when he mentioned "cable TV".

"If you guys miss it so much," I burst at some point during our walk around town. "…then why don't you two just pack your things and _go back_?"

"You keep saying things like that, Katie," Travis said as he followed me inside a grocery store. "we will start to think we are not welcome here." The little bell on top of the door ringed and we were welcomed by Mr. Cassell, the grey haired owner of the shop (and our mayor as well). His appearance prevented me from answering them exactly as I wanted (which was by using very bad words):

"Oh, dear!" Old Mr. Cassell said as he rubbed his hands together happily and smiling at me. "If it isn't this town's most graceful flower!"

"Travis, I think this old dude just called me a flower." I heard Connor whisper to his brother. "I'm telling you: this town makes me_ irresistible_ to everyone!"

Both Travis and I turned around to glare at him –agreeing on something for, probably, the first time ever.

"What?" Connor asked. "I mean it; he was all over me just a second ago! Didn't you two hear it?" As Travis smacked his little brother's head, I rolled my eyes and turned to again:

"I'm so sorry, sir. I'm very sorry for their behavior." I seemed to be saying that a lot lately; all the time. Sometimes it felt like I had just adopted two fully grown men who insisted on behaving as mentally challenged toddlers. Mr. Cassell's eyes narrowed as he gave me his biggest smile and a loud, hoarse laughter:

"Oh, sugar, yo' sh'dn't wo'ry about them -fellas will be fellas, is ah right?" I smiled at him kindly even though I was just trying not to look too desperate and, behind me, the sounds of fighting and struggling stopped at once:

"Did you actually understand what he said?" Connor's head appeared between Travis' arms as he questioned me. "'Cause I couldn't understand a thing."

"Shut up!" I whispered harshly to him trying to keep my smile flawless so wouldn't notice they were out of control. I think he noticed anyway but, gladly, he's a very nice old man and just turned to both Stolls and said:

"Don't wo'ry, Katie, I'm glad t'finally meet this town's two new celebrities." He opened the small fridge under his counter and took out three Coke cans. "Here, one for each of you; it's on the house. I like you fellas for keeping my Katie some company."

I thought it was wise not to bother poor with how much I'd rather have an ulcer than having to have both Stolls "keeping me company" and, even if I wanted to, I wouldn't be able to express any feelings at all since, as soon as I reached for my own can, two pairs of hands grabbed the other two passionately. I turned my head to see both sons of Hermes staring to the Coke can under the light as if it was some sort of god.

"Travis this is…"

"I know, Connor, I know." The way they were talking, it was as if they were about to burst into tears of joy.

"It's…It's the real thing, man, it's no "Bubba Cola" like they have it in school."

"Yeah, I mean, that thing is just…not this."

"C'mon, let's do it" Travis said and they exchanged serious looks, holding their own cans in front of their bodies. "On three, ok? Are you ready?"

"I was born ready."

"One…THREE! GO!"

And then they both opened their cans and started drinking it quickly like it could cure all sorts of evil. I risked a worried glance with the corner of my eyes to see what poor Mr. Cassell was thinking of my weird companions but he seemed more than ok with it –he actually seemed _amused._

Actually, I have come to realize that this seems to be what most people here think of them; that they are just two little slightly weird big city kids with a funny attitude. The teachers don't even yell at them for skipping classes or sleeping all the time when they actually show up for once…I have two theories about this; they either inherited some serious charismatic skills from their father or –and I believe this one is much more likely – the whole world has made some sort of pact with the two of them just so they can drive me insane.

However, I had to admit to myself as I watched the two of them drinking and dancing in sink as if that stupid soda was the coolest thing they had ever seen was actually quite funny and I do admit (though never out loud) that I can somewhat understand the appeal they have to girls with their wild curls and pale skin, the way their evil smiles are perfect matches and, most of all, the way they always stick together – I never had any brothers or sisters, aside from the ones at camp and, even there, I don't seem to click with anyone –so I truly envy what the two Stolls have and I don't really think them being here is, like, the worst thing in the world.

I mean, there's always the Titans, right? I'd say the Stolls are a close second.

By the time I started drinking from my own coke, they were already belching in unison; they heard the "psst" sound of the can opening and eyed me desperately, with pleading eyes:

"No way." I said as if I was talking to a baby. "If I give you this one Coke you two will fight to death for it and we don't want to get 's store covered in blood, do we?"

They seemed to think about it and then turned their eyes to Mr. Cassell –their big, pleading, shiny eyes.

"Ok, ok. I'll get you kids another two cans."

At this point they literally jumped off the counter and hugged the old man.

"We love you, Mr. Cassell!" They said repeatedly among many other words of affection. Poor had a big smile on his face and I knew he and his wife had tried for children but never managed to have their own se he always had a soft spot for this sort of thing. It made me feel kinda bad that he had no idea how the boys would have simply stolen the drinks from him had he not given them any. I sipped from my drink as I watched them jump around and make a fuss about everything.

"You are so great, Mr. Cassell!"

"Yes, you are the best."

"We love you to pieces."

"And I thought I hated all of you stupid close minded republicans!"

I spit my drink all over the counter.

"Excuse us for a second, Mr. Cassell." I said with my sweetest smile as I dragged both Stolls by the ears outside the store. Luckily, 's age seemed to be kicking in so he didn't look like he had assimilated any of Travis' comments. Once we were outside, I took a deep breath and slapped them senselessly, ignoring their loud whining about how uncalled for that was.

"Ouch, ouch, ouch!"

"Why are you doing this to us, Katie?"

"_Because_!" I yelled back at Connor. I could tell was staring at us, trying to make sense of what I was saying from reading my lips. "That man did nothing but be nice to the two of you and you go and insult him? What kind of twisted person does bad things to the people they care about?" I already had my hands on my hips and I hadn't even realized that.

They stared at me blankly for exactly two seconds then:

"Travis does that all the time." Connor said shrugging.

Travis elbowed his ribs. While the younger Stoll bowled in pain, I rolled my eyes:

"I don't have time for your siblings' rivalry. Now, that man was nice enough to offer the two of you something you really liked even though he didn't even know you that well, so now the two of you will go there and apologize! Are we clear?"

They stared at their own shoes sheepishly.

"Yes, ma'am." They said together, as usual.

"Good, you guys first." I said opening the door and signalizing for them to enter the shop.

"Oh, you kids are back already." said with his almost toothless smile.

"Yes." The three of us said.

"We are sorry, , we didn't mean to be rude."

"Yeah, we shouldn't have offended your political views."

"We love the Bush family."

"And Ronald Reagan was great in "Death Valley Days"."

Travis and I both looked in confusion at Connor after this last comment of his but laughed and approached us so he could pat both boys on their backs:

"It's alright, kids." He said in his cheerful husky voice. "We all haf our diffrunt views, right? I, fo' instance reckon this hyar trimenjus bush yo' two call hair makes yo' look like two sissies but, hey, thet's jest an old man's opinion, right?" He then walked away back to his counter whistling happily –he hadn't meant to offender Connor and Travis of course, people here just tend to be, you know, _blunt_. They stood in silence, paired up next to me like two tall, skinny towers, 'till Travis turned to me and said:

"Now, Katie, I don't get much of you people dialect but did over there just call us, you know…_gay_?" I smiled and patted them on the back as well:

"Nah, he didn't, guys." I was starting to understand why they enjoyed making people miserable so much –it had its charm. "He just said you two looked_ girly_."

"How is that different?" He asked me with sarcasm. And I smiled with the winning smile of someone who had just thought of a great answer:

"A gay man at least _has_ a penis."

_Buuuurn._

If I stopped the story there, you might be mislead to believe that, at least at that point, my constant war against the Stolls had had some sort of happy ending but don't be mistaken this is only the first of many other series of frustrations that are slowly driving me mad. You see, I was feeling rather confident after my great victory over the two of them that afternoon until later that week when I entered 's store and his first words were:

"Katie, dear, you alone today?" I waved and nodded politely so, approached and me and whispered in the way a grandfather would talk to his favorite grandchild. "Kin ah talk t'yo' fo' a second, dear?" I nodded again:

"Sure."

"Well, I just wanted to say…"He seemed very emotional. "That I hope you know I have always regarded you as one of my own, right?" I smiled at him and he resumed. "and…I'm really for you,dear."

"Happy for me?" I first assumed he was talking about how much I had grown up or something like that but what he said next froze me to the bone:

"Yes, I know how love is a important thing, I never had any children but I've always felt complete thanks to old and, let me tell you, I can tell by the way that Stoll boy looks at you –that's the eye of a man in love."

Luckily I hadn't had breakfast that morning or else I'm sure it would have ended up on the store's floor at once.

", thank you but Travis and I, we aren't…" I tried to explain but you know how some old people are just so stubborn they won't even hear what you say? caressed my hair and kissed me on the cheek. "He's lucky to have you, doll, you're the best thing this town has to offer and you keep this in mind: that Travis, he's a keeper."

At this point, I felt like I was about to puke my internal organs but I knew it was no good trying to explain anything –it hadn't worked at school where people see us everyday _not_ being boyfriend and girlfriend, let alone to poor who still thinks San Francisco is this era's Sodom and Gomorrah.

Can you tell why I didn't mind falling from the human tower? Physical bruises are the least harmful ones (or maybe this thought comes from years of running away from monsters that want to eat you for lunch) –by the time Travis and Connor invaded our cheerleading practice bringing a black and white calf with them, I was hardly impressed.

Unfortunately for me, the rest of the girls on the squad weren't and, since I was on the top…I'm just going to say that I'm glad we train on grass.

"Look who's just saved the day!" They said with their arms raised high –they had the baby cow on an improvised oversized skateboard and, I could be wrong, but I think they had also put a ribbon around its neck.

"What…the…?" I started saying from my spot on the ground as everyone rushed towards them. Beau, who had been doing his homework on the benches hurried up and helped me up.

"Are you ok?"

"Yeah." I answered blushing while I cleaned the dirt off my skirt. "Was that a cow?" I got on my toes trying to see something over the gigantic sea of girls and pompoms but it turned out to be impossible. Seeing my difficulty, Beau yelled:

"Hey, everyone! MOVE AWAY FROM THE COW!" Everyone moved except for Connor and Travis who stood besides the calf. Beau and I walked towards them in strong, steady steps:

"What _is_ this?" I asked with my hands already on my hips, taking control of the situation.

"Whoa, for someone who lived here most of their life, you sure aren't very familiar with farm animals…" Connor commented and I narrowed my eyes at him – he immediately took a step behind Travis.

"What I meant…" I said, taking a deep breath. "Was to ask _why_ do you happen to have a cow with you?"

Breathe in and breathe out, Katie, I told myself. There's no need to kill anyone…yet.

"Well, Mary wanted us to get it." Travis answered me shrugging. "You know, for you people's ritual."

"Ritual?" Beau and I asked in unison and our chemistry made my heart skip a beat though I had to ignore it.

"Yeah, you know; the steal and name the first cow born in September thing you people do…" Connor said matter-of-factly. "Now you can all dance and light torches or whatever it is you people do…"

Beau stood quietly next to me, I don't think he had met the Stolls just yet except for seeing them around in the few classes we shared together and he wasn't sure on what opinion to make. I had made sure that they didn't meet, of course, Gods know what the two most evil people would do to my love life so I was trying my best not to let it show that I had some hidden feelings.

"So…" Beau started saying at last. "Who told you to do this?"

"Wait a minute!" I interrupted them, finally noticing something. "Did you _steal_ this calf?"

Travis raised both his e yebrows at me with sarcasm and asked me with a grin:

"Excuse, have we _met_?" He said that as if I had just him what color was the sky.

I'm going to kill someone. It's official: I'm Katie Gardner: half human, half god, entirely murder.

"Who told you to steal this calf?" Beau asked again, this time kneeling next to the animal and checking its colar.

"Mary did." Travis answered him as if he had just noticed him there. "Just don't ask me which one."

"Hm." Was all Beau said as he kept examining the baby cow.

"She told to us it was part of a ritual you guys had here…Said none of you guys were brave enough to go get it, she gave us an address and told us you needed it for today so…_voilá_!" Travis said presenting the cow with a stunt and shaking hands, Connor mimicked his actions.

"They are not cheering, Travis." Connor commented on a whisper to his older brother. "Why aren't they cheering?"

"Because your hand shaking skills suck. I told you to do it with jazz hands, Connor, _jazz hands_."

"I have perfectly fine jazz hands moves…"

"_Stop!"_ I shouted, stop their bickering from getting even worse. "Someone tells you we have a habit of stealing animals and using it in rituals and you simply_ believe_ them? What kind of people do you two think we are?"

"I don't know." Travis shrugged. "Amish?"

I took yet another deep breath and closed my hands in fists, carving my nails on my skin to try and find some sanity among that confusion.

"Uh, Kat…" Beau said from his spot on the grass. "It gets worse."

"Worse?" I asked with my sweetest voice so Beau wouldn't notice me freaking out. "This calf…it belongs to Mrs. Tremblay."

I immediately turned and slapped Travis and Connor across the face.

"_Ouch?"_ They asked me together, rubbing their cheeks but I ignored them. I turned to my cheerleaders and yelled at them:

"Which one of you_ bimbos_ told it would be funny to make the Stolls steal cattle from as a prank?"

"We've been pranked?"

"Katie said a bad word?" Were Connor and Travis' comments respectively.

"It was me, Kati, I'm sorry." Mary Ann appeared from behind one of the other cheerleader and she looked really guilty. "I had no idea they'd actually manage to get inside the farm, let alone steal it. It was just a "welcome to town" prank, ya know?"

Travis and Connor's jaws dropped.

"_You _pulled a prank_ on us?"_

"Shut up the two of you!" I told them rigidly. "This is not the time for this. Can't you see the mess the two of you are in?" And, with my lips trembling I turned to Mary one more time. "Why would you do this?"

"I'm so sorry, Katie. I had no idea they'd even manage to get in, that house is surrounded by guards and cameras and all sorts of alarms…" I nodded my head – regardless how stupid her idea had been, she had no way of knowing she was asking two godly gifted thieves to do what they did best. I sighed and then turned to the Stolls:

"Mary is sorry; forgive her." It was an order I hoped they took.

"It's ok, Mary." They both smiled and I knew she was doomed to unending pranks 'till the end of her days.

"Now…" I sat down and everyone followed me, Beau patted me on the back and I was silently thankful. "We need to figure out a way to take this cow back…"

"Relax!" Travis waved me off. "It's just a baby cow –we can sneak it back in easily enough."

"No!" Connor protested. "We can't simply give up on Blair!"

"_Blair_?" Beau asked, surprised.

"Yeah." Connor replied coyly. "I was hoping you'd accept my name suggestion. At first we had named it Clarisse…"

"Because of a person we know…" Travis explained.

"But then we found out it was a _girl cattle_…"

"Because it doesn't have a…"

"And we thought it would be offensive to keep calling it Clarisse."

"And now she's Blair."

Beau stared at them in silence –I'm sure he had no idea of what they had just said or as to why they kept completing each other sentences:

"O…k…" He finally answered slowly and politely.

I slapped Travis and Connor again.

"_Why?"_ They shouted in response.

"Because!" I replied. "This is a prized cow, you crazies! All of Mrs. Tremblay cows are like…_cattle gold_." They snickered. "I'm not joking!"

"Oh, please, Katie." Travis answered with a smile. "You can't say things like "cattle gold" and expect us not to find it funny."

I fought the urge to break his neck using the grass under us.

"She's right." Beau told him with a patience I no longer had. "I'm sorry if you two got attached to this little gal here but she's Mrs. Tremblay's property and I could be wrong but a pretty animal like her could be worth around six to seven grand…"

"_Grand?" _Connor said, clearly baffled and then turned to Travis. "Dude, that's thousands!"

"Blair is worth all that?" Travis asked Beau and even though he tried to sound cool, he was clearly impressed. "People really do pay all that on a cow?"

"They do if it's a prized cow like this one here." Beau answered. "And that's why I think you guys shouldn't go back in there to return it." He eyed the cow seriously. "I don't doubt Mrs. Tremblay already put the cops on you guys…And I don't care how fast or discreet you two are, on a town small as this one…There's no way you could escape."

"You wanna bet on it?" Connor asked with a defiant smile but Travis shut him up by raising a hand. I think he knew that could jeopardize their demigod identities. Well, who would ever guess? Maybe even he could be responsible every now and then…

" Say we are caught, what could happen to us?"

"Jail."

Travis pondered and then started standing up:

"Well, we can handle that; it will be fun trying to escape –c'mon, Connor, let's go."

Wait, scratch that thought about responsibility I just had.

"Wait, guys." Beau interrupted them. "Don't do that, if you guys are sent to jail –you'll be marked as thieves in all of the stores in this town as well as the ones in cities around – you'll become _personas non grata_ everywhere.

They looked at me:

"This means you two won't be able to stay here." I explained. "At least not if you want to enter public places."

They exchanged some worried glances before Connor asked me:

"Does that include Mr. Cassell's store?"

"Yes." I said understanding their track of thought at once. "You won't be able to buy Coke."

Their expressions suddenly changed:

"Help us, Katie!" They pleaded and I rolled my eyes. "Please, please,please,please!"

Their agony was somewhat delighting but I couldn't help but to worry.

"Well," I said fighting a smile. "You could always leave this town forever…"

"Nah." Beau said suddenly standing up. "There's no need to be so radical." He cleaned his jeans as he spoke:

"Mrs. Tremblay is a friend of my mother; I usually deliver groceries at her place –I could go find her, tell her that the calf looked sick today when I went by her place at noon, and that I took it to my father for some exams; we will just, you know, have to talk to my father first." He shrugged. I stood up at once:

"I'll go with you –I feel responsible for the trouble _they_" I glared at the Stolls. "cause." Beau smiled his gorgeous smile to me and said:

"Great! My truck is outside, let's go…" He hesitated for a second and then turned to Connor:

"You guys want to, you know, give the cow…your goodbyes?"

"No." Travis shrugged.

Connor kneeled on the floor and held the cow by the neck:

"I'll miss you, Blair. We had the greatest time ever, even if it was only for a couple of hours. You're the best cow ever. No woman will ever suppress the emptiness left by you in my heart."

All the cheerleaders went "aaawn". I think he did that on purpose.

As Beau and I dragged the calf by the cord on its skateboard, Travis and Connor approached him:

"You're Beau Higgins, right?"

"Yes."

"Well, Beau…"Travis sounded serious for once. "Thanks, dude, you're being really nice."

Beau smiled and offered Travis a handshake:

"It's no trouble, man."

Amazing, I was just watching the man I loved and the man I _loathed_ shaking hands –it's a feeling probably only compared to having the need to pee and being thirsty at the same time; I felt filled with contradictions in my heart.

They were quiet for a couple of seconds before Travis said:

"You are a handsome man –when I saw you in class, I thought you'd be dumb or a bit of a stuck up…"

"But you're a real gentleman." Connor completed.

"Yeah…Prince Charming material."

"Guys like you are the reason women will never truly be happy with a regular looking man."

"You should try a male modeling career…"

"Let's go, Beau!" I started dragging a very confused Beau out of the field before the Stolls confused him even more.

Everything turned out ok, Mrs. Tremblay was so glad we had taken care of her baby cow, she offered us some really expensive chocolate that we were both feeling too guilty to accept and, after that, not only did I got to expend time with Beau as he also paid me dinner – it was _exactly_ like a date, he even drove me home. It was a happy ending after weeks and weeks of hell – this was the first real good day of my perfect senior year, I was finally starting to have hopes again.

'Til I turned on the lights of my bedroom and realized there was a guy laying on my bed.

"I'm _bored_." Travis said while staring at my ceiling. I could have screamed –believe me, I wanted to but I knew this wake my father up and then I'd be in trouble for getting home so late.

"What are you doing here?" I asked in a desperate whisper. I could feel my cheeks burning for no apparent reason except the fact that there was a boy laying in my bed – I'm a small town girl who lives with an overprotective father; obviously, I didn't have many boys visiting and now, the first guy to ever visit my sheets is Travis Stoll.

I'm feeling nauseous.

"Are you aware that it's only half past nine and the whole town is asleep?" Travis, as usual, completely ignored my questions (and my anger, for that matter).

"What are you doing here?" I asked again, he rolled his eyes impatiently:

"Connor was depressed over the calf thing so he was no good company…I think some cheerleader said she would give him a shoulder massage to cheer him up and he went looking for her." He shrugged. "So I decided to explore the town on my own."

"And why did you give up on that?"

"I didn't – the town is just boring and tiny; I've finished exploring it in fifteen minutes." He told me matter-of-factly. "Then I came here to pay you a visit so you can entertain me."

He says that as if we were_ friends_.

"Well, I'm sorry but I have to sleep too. It's already late and I haven't even changed my clothes…"

"I like your cheerleader uniform." He pointed out without a hint of sarcasm in his voice what made his comment only a hundred times more embarrassing.

"Uh…thanks." I answered a little overwhelmed and he smiled.

"I also like your room; it's funny the things you can learn about someone by entering their bedroom."

"What do you mean?" I said checking my walls and ceiling, trying to understand what he meant by that and honestly hoping he hadn't fussed through my room in search of something shady to use against me on future blackmail. He chuckled at my question and sit with his feet under his knees on my bed:

"Oh, you know: the books you read, the posters on your wall, the pictures of your family…The kind of dull thing I thought you'd have when I first imagined your room."

"Unbelievable…Can you go for half an hour without throwing a blunt offense at me?" I asked rolling my eyes at him and sitting on the side of my bed he had just left unoccupied.

"I try to." He said. "But before I realize, I'm back on the wagon."

"Whatever." I answered moodily. "You are one to talk anyway; I can already imagine your bedroom filled with junk you stole from other people." His eyes dodged mine for a second and he smiled:

"I wouldn't know; I never had a bedroom of my own." I felt an instant pain in my heart. Sometimes I forget Connor and Travis are year-round campers for a reason.

"I'm sorry I brought that up." I said guiltily and he raised an eyebrow at me:

"Sorry about what, weirdo?" he chuckled and I knew that was the end of that subject.

"So, Katie…" Travis scratched the back of his head nervously. "That Beau guy…" I felt my heart shrink – I had forgotten for a second just how dangerous Travis Stoll was and I had gotten too close, too intimate. I couldn't, by any means, let him know of my feelings for Beau – that could be the end of all my teenage dreams. "He's really nice, right?"

I tried taking his comment with humor so things wouldn't get personal:

"Hm, look at you, all thankful and in _love_ with Beau."

"Unlike Mr. Cassell's opinion of me might tell you, I'm not a girl thus I'm not in love with Beau Higgins." He answered and I giggled. "You, however, are completely head over heels for him."

Obviously, I had chosen the wrong track to take the conversation by.

"What?" I tried to look unpleasantly surprise. "I am most definitely not…"

He raised an accusing eyebrow at me.

"I'm crazy about Beau."

"I knew it!" He said with a smirk.

"Was I that obvious?" I asked nervously, worried that I might have made myself too clear for other people to notice. Travis smiled triumphantly:

"Hardly." He answered. "But I read your old journals before you arrived here."

"You _what?_" At that moment, as I aimed at his neck to end his life and, consequently, my misery, I heard a knock on my bedroom door.

"Katie, biscuit, are you home already? I thought I heard some noises coming from here."

Travis stood really still and quiet, if he wasn't right in front of me, holding my wrists as to prevent me from choking him,_ I_ wouldn't have noticed him there.

"Uh, yeah, daddy." I replied to my wood door. "I'm home! I can't talk to you right now ´cause…I'm not decent." I said the first thing that came to mind but regretted it as soon as I saw Travis' expression:

"Naughty cheerleader." He whispered with a smirk, I kicked his knee and he bit his lip not to yelp in pain.

"Of course, hun, good night!"

"Good night, father! Don't forget to take your pills in the morning!" I yelled as the sound of his footsteps gained distance from my door.

My heart was racing so much, I forgot to be angry.

"You." I pointed my index finger towards Travis. "Leave. Now." To my surprise, he didn't argue at all, he just walked towards my window and put one of his legs over it.

"Hey, Katie…" He started. "Just one more thing."

"What?" I asked angrily, expecting yet another clever offense.

"I'm sorry I read your diaries." He didn't sound sorry at all. "But you seem to like Beau for quite a while now."

I knew it, I knew that, the moment he found out I liked someone, he'd use that against me in the worst ways he could think of. I prepared myself for the worse.

"But, haven't you considered telling him how you feel?" I raised my eyes to look at him, cause I was just not believe my ears. "I mean, I know I offend you all the time but…you're not _disgusting _to look at or anything."

"Thanks, I guess." I answered still a little startled by his sudden niceness.

"And I guess one could look past your awfully high maintenance personality and your bossy temper…"

"I take my gratitude back."

He chuckled and sighed before asking on a voice I thought it was so serious it didn't fit him very well:

"Did Castor ever tell you he liked you?" This question took me by surprise and I was speechless for a moment. "You know, before he died and everything. Everyone at camp knew he had some sort of thing for you."

I sighed sadly:

"He told me a week before the Battle of the Labyrinth…" I answered sadly. "But I rejected him." That was not my favorite subject for obvious reasons. Castor, Pollux and I were relatively close to the time we spent at the strawberry fields taking care of the plants and such, I only saw the two of them during summer but we had a good relationship. Castor was very upfront about his feelings towards me even though I never took him seriously, when he told me he liked me, I simply said I was sorry, that I liked someone else and that I hardly knew him. When, a week later, he died – you can imagine just how messed up I was. I must have showed some of my feelings through my expression 'cause Travis said:

"The titans' army killed him, not you dumping him, Katie –don't you get cocky and blame yourself for it." I attempted a smile and he made a face. "What I'm trying to say is that you need to tell Beau you like him to get some sort of answer out of him. You can't live the rest of your life expecting things to happen because you wish upon a star…Especially if you are a demigod. If there's one thing this war has thought me is that our lives are most likely to end very soon…"

"Such positive thinking…" I said smirking.

"Laugh all you want, girly, but we both know it only takes one monster to end it all."

"Who are you? Do you have a split personality that only appears when you are away from Connor?" I was not used to wise, mature Travis, he made me awfully uncomfortable.

Travis put his other leg over my window to leave:

"Good night, Gardner."

"Travis, wait." I walked towards my window and stood next to him. "Most of the time, I hate you a lot."

"Are you going to push me from here?" He asked. "Cause if that's the case I should tell you upfront that it wouldn't kill me." I laughed and kissed his cheek:

"But I didn't hate you a lot today." I gave that line a second thought. "No, wait, I hated you a lot the whole day but…right now, at this very end of the night, I kinda thought of you as a nice person."

He smiled a smile I didn't know he had (mostly 'cause it looked hardly cynical at all):

"Make sure you keep that in mind 'till I see you again, will you?"

"Why?"

He didn't answer my question though; he just jumped from my second floor window door and fell on his feet like a cat before running madly towards the backyard's gate. As I watched him running I allowed myself to think of Travis as a nice guy who I saw as my close friend through the years, even though most of our interactions ended up in me crying for help or trying to kill him.

My thoughts only lasted three seconds because that's what took me to realize he had stolen my iPod.

Gods, I hate that curly haired demon!

**A/N:** _I had intended at first to make this the part where Travis uses Taylor Swift references to describe his love but I have decided things would get too messy if I added yet another scene, so you can wait for that on the next part. Also, please tell what you thought of this chapter, I'm actually very fond of it –both when it comes to humor AND to the romance part. I really enjoy long reviews, so don't forget to mention your favorite, quotes, parts and all that. Also, if you don't remember who Castor is, he's the son of Mr. D who got killed in the fourth book (though I guess that much was pretty obvious). I've always thought that, maybe, Demeter children had some sort of a good relationship with Dionysius' children since they could both work on the fields, care for the plants and all that –though I sincerely doubt Castor and Pollux are that much into working, lol. Anyway, thanks for all the reviews you will get me cause I know you will and see you all in the next part. xD_


	4. Act 3 Travis

**Sweet and Corny**

**A/N: **_Finally: act 3. I'm not sure this will be a funny chapter though I do count on Katie's part to be hilarious, if I get it to turn out the way I want. Either way, if you're a Connor fan, you might really like this. I know chapter 3 had some big spelling and grammar mistakes but I already rechecked it and I'm about to update its text after I update this. Please, don't forget to leave me your opinion on this and to check my other PJatO comedies (and the new drama I've got going on right now too)! Love! _

_**Act 3:**_

_**Cowboy, Take me Away (from those two)**_

**Travis**

"We had no idea what to do; he's been like this for hours…"

"At first, we thought he was just, you know, sleeping like he usually does in classes…"

"But then he wouldn't respond to anything…"

"We decided we should probably call you."

"You guys did the right thing, don't worry, I'll take it from here." The last voice came from my brother and it was the only one I managed to recognize among the mess of sounds that surrounded my mind at that moment.

"Oh, Travis…" I heard my brother say as he stared at me with a look that meant I probably looked like something that had come out from an 80's B-movie about zombies. Connor sat on a chair just in front of the one I was and sighed:

"So you've finally reached stage number four."

"Uuuuh…" The sound that came out from my mouth as a reply was barely audible and it sounded like the echoes of a dark cave in _Tartarus_. If it wasn't for the hot breath that I had felt leaving my lips, I'd believe I was actually dead.

"Yeah, you are definitely on stage four." My brother pointed out knowingly. I let my head fall on the wooden table in front of me and, with my voice muffled, I grunted:

"_Dude_!" I cut him before he could start on his meaningless theories about my _psyche_ or something like that. "_Just shut up_!"

I have learned a few things after 16 years of having a younger sibling and one of these things is that, when you tell your little brother to shut up, it _never _works.

"Oh, quit whining, will you?" _Never_ works, I tell you. "You know I'm right and that's why you're acting defensive, Travis, but you already admitted to yourself –somewhere within the deep, deep dark hallways of your evil heart – you have already admitted the truth to yourself!" He said all of that on the same "I told you so" tone that so often made me want to grab him by his curly hair and thrust his face _repeatedly_ against hard surfaces. I inhaled deeply, dismissing any murderous thoughts from my head –a task much harder than what you might think.

"Are you back at stage one?" He sounded honestly concerned, stupid, pathetic and gay, of course, but mostly concerned. "Travis, please tell me you're not back to stage one."

"I'm not back at stage one, Connor…" I started already feeling my head aching from the effort that was talking. "…because this whole "Five Stages" thing is all fruit of your socially retarded mind to begin with! I'm not going through it!"

Connor analyzed me in silence for a second or two:

"Well, now you sound like someone who just started on level two! We are clearly facing retrocession here and that's no good!"

"Oh my Gods, shut up!" I smacked my head against the table feeling anything but resigned.

By now, you're probably wondering what exactly my abusively delusional younger brother is on about with this whole "Stages" thing, well, worry no more: I'll make everything clear to you.

It all started two nights ago, after Katie and Beau Higgins left cheerleading practice to return Blair, the cow to its previous owner. Connor and I were left behind in the field, surrounded by blonde cheerleaders everywhere –like a dream island of Stollness. The cheerleaders kept staring at us in awe as if we were some sort of minor gods (which we aren't, really: as hard to believe as that might be; we are only _half_ deity) which is usually one of the pros of being in this town after all: Garden City, the one place in the whole world where stealing cattle instantly turns you into a first class _pimp_.

As I've mentioned before, _usually_ I wouldn't mind being in that situation at all – especially since I do happen to have a thing for girls in pleated skirts – but, for reasons I can still not fully comprehend; I found myself unable to take my eyes out of the gate from where Katie and Beau had just left. Connor was right next to me, still on his knees and whining to whoever wanted to hear about how his heart aching or some other nonsense like that (_I_ didn't want to hear); the cheerleaders seemed to be buying it though, cause I could hear them going "awn" and trying to cheer him up.

I know, right? A whole cheerleading team trying to cheer Connor up; Garden City really _is_ a strange place.

"Connor…" I finally said with my eyes still glued to the gate. "Connor!" I repeated more loudly than before to get his attention. His head appeared next to mine (well, a few inches shorter, of course):

" 'Sup?" He asked and, as he didn't get any answers, his own eyes traveled trying to recreate the path my gaze was making. _"Oh." _He said heavily as he realized what I was staring at, which caused me to immediately turn my head and ask harshly:

"What do you mean "_oh_"?" He frowned:

"You _know_ what I mean." I rolled my eyes at him:

"Dude…"

"_Dude!"_

I kid you not; we were having a meaningful, heartfelt sibling conversation right there. So deep, in fact, all the girls around us stopped giggling and playing with their hair to pay attention at us (I'd know that; I have ADHD).

"And that…" My brother's voice brought me back from my flashback. "Was the start of stage one: _Denial_."

You see, Connor has this theory – no, sorry, let me correct myself here: he has this _absurd_ theory that I'm going through the famous "Five Stages of Grief"; according to Connor they were determined by some Swiss psychiatrist that studied the effects on imminent death on people.

"Let's face it, Travis: to you, liking Katie is exactly like dying." Were his exact words, I believe.

Please refrain from thinking of Connor as some sort of wise man; I'm almost sure he picked that stuff up on a Grey's Anatomy season finale or something.

"Shall I present again all the evidence leading me into pointing out my theory then?" He asked me with a smug smirk embossed on his expression.

"No, you _shan't_." I replied with gritted teeth but he ignored me.

"Stage number one: _Denial_." He started out, raising his index finger to count. "We come to this Gods forsaken town just because you – moved by, what I can only believe is some sort of post-traumatic reaction to the Battle of Manhattan – decided we should pay Katie Gardner a visit."

My head started to ache but I knew he wouldn't stop so I didn't say anything.

"We get lost at least five times on our way _despite_ us both being direct descendent of the god of travelers and basically the human versions of a modern GPS system and _still _you insist we keep on walking 'til we find it…" At this point, I felt my cargo pants' pockets in search of my compass that turned into a knife and wondered just how much damage it would do to my brother's face. Regardless the scowl on my face, Connor proceeded with his ranting:

"Now, once we get here what's the first thing you do? No, it's not finding us a place to stay! You make sure we register as students on the same school as…" He moved his hands in circles, signing for me to end his sentence and I roll my eyes before saying:

"Katie Gardner…"

"Yes! You get us studying on the same school as Katie Gardner and still gives me no good reason for doing so which leads me to pointing out as a joke that you might have feelings for her." He made a dramatic pause. "And what do _you_ do when I say that?" I didn't reply 'cause I knew he wanted to say it as dramatically as possible.

"Exactly!" He agrees with nobody. "You hit me on the head with a 12x18 photo frame of the Bush family!" And I am _not_ regretting it right now. "That actually made me think you were going through stage two already but, as we started going to class with her, I was able to realize just how blinded you were by your own _stupidity_."

"Why thank you." I said with sarcasm and he waved me off.

"I'm not joking here, Travis!" He frowned at me.

"Sorry." I said, emotionless. "It's just that it's so hard to believe you'd take yourself seriously while saying so much cr…"

"I'm ignoring you from now on." He cut me off midsentence.

"Anyway," He continued after realizing I was not going to add anything else to that conversation. "We spend weeks chasing Katie up and down this town and you insist on denying any sort of feelings from your part." Another dramatic pause. "Until we meet _Beau Higgins_."

I let out a painful moan and smacked my head against the desk.

"Yup; Beau Higgins. He's tall, charming, polite, nice and, obviously better than you." I didn't protest, I just sunk more and more on the chair I was sitting on. "You see Katie around him, you see her leave the place with him and, when I point out you're finally close to owning up to your feelings, what do you do?"

There was a moment of silence from both of us and then I finally swallowed my pride and answered moodily:

"I punched you in the stomach."

"And then you ran away." His smirk grew bigger and he started poking me. "And where did you run away to, Travis? _Where?_"

I coughed loudly, trying to disguise my guilt, but it didn't work. Connor glared at me and I sighed, resigned:

"Katie Gardner's house."

"Katie Gardner's house!" He repeated my answer with a fake surprised tone. Remember how I said Connor loved the feeling of telling people they were wrong and he was right? This thing he's doing right now is a perfect example of that habit and it makes me wonder if he can actually stop doing it – I could swear he was so high in it, his pupils were dilated. "And you stood there for over three hours! Leaving me alone with absolutely no idea of where you had gone to."

"Oh, don't act as if you hated it, dude; you were surrounded by a cheerleading team! Besides, what do you mean by "no idea" where I had gone? This town has, like, half the area of Hermes' cabin…" The worst part is that I was only exaggerating _a little_ on this.

Once again, my brother ignored my remarks and went on with his rant:

"Then you break into our own house in the middle of the night holding what seems to be a pale pink iPod, scares the hell out of me with your yelling and then…" I grunted knowing what would come next. "You punch a hole into our wall."

"I already fixed that; there's no need to act all bitchy about it." Connor raised an eyebrow at me, his expression filled with contempt:

"Covering the hole with duct tape and painting it over with colored markers isn't _fixing,_ Travis, _but_…" He raised his hand in the air to stop me from saying anything. "That's beside the point. The point here is that we had reached Stage two." He then showed me two raised fingers in his hand. "_Anger_."

"Can we do something else?" I seemed to be talking to the wind now and no longer to my demented younger sibling.

"Now, Anger was a tough one of course – we had to deal with it almost all weekend. I'll admit the first twelve hours were both scary and entertaining though: there's something about you locked inside a dark room, yelling country music lyrics while running around in circles and cursing at the gods that made a really good show, I'll give you that." Has my brother no fear for his life? _Seriously? _"The whole "this can't be happening to me", "why me" and "I hope all your future girlfriends become trees" routine –alongside with the fist shaking to the skies – was pretty impressive."

"Shut up." My request was barely audible anyway as I could already feel all my remaining will power leaving my body.

"Then, after that, you and I engage in this awfully long conversation about just how unfair it is for you to like Katie. We spend the whole weekend at home because _you _don't want to talk to anyone, except me, of course, what means not only was I stuck inside home for two days as I was also forced to endure a lecture on just how long was the list of annoying things Katie did ever since you first met years ago." He says _he_ was forced to endure a lecture? "And let me tell you something, Travis: we've known Katie for a _long_ time. Besides, I was there with you on basically all the events you mentioned! It really made me think that we _do_ spend an unhealthy amount of time together. "

"I told you, didn't I? Even the Olsen Twins found different personalities at some point…"

"We will work on our dysfunctional co-dependent relationship later; right now I'm focused on your dysfunctional love life…"

Dear Zeus, please kill me. Love, Travis.

"You know, Connor, Sherman once dared me to chew on the hair of Chiron's tail and I totally did it; it tasted like sugarcane…"

It was no good: he truly wasn't even listening to me at all.

"When Anger was over –and I can say we were all happy that it did or else we would end up without a place to live – I was led to believe that you wouldn't go through the third stage at all, however, that was mostly due to the fact that you were so tired of crashing stuff, you just fell asleep really heavily on the living room floor and didn't wake up for a long time."

I did. I woke up alone on the carpet looking everywhere, trying to remember where I was and how I had gotten myself in there; it took me a few minutes before anything.

"So, I come back home…"

"Wait a minute, I faint for no apparent reason and, instead of wondering if I'm ok, you _leave_ the house with me in it?"

Connor looked sideways, looking only remotely guilty.

"You're my brother, Travis." He said soberly. "And I love you, I really do…" He held my hand. "But I _literally _couldn't stand to see your face anymore. You should be glad I went out, really; one more second in there and I'd have skinned your face out." He made a pause and I stared at his face with wide eyes. He smiled:

"No offense."

I felt my face frozen with shock but replied slowly anyway:

"None…taken?" I guess I'd have to forgive Connor anyway, it's not as if I didn't feel like killing him most of the time too.

"Good." He smiled. "Anyway, moving on to stage number three: _Bargain_."

That took me by surprise:

"Wait a minute! Bargain? I didn't "bargain" for anything." At first, Connor chuckled then his eyes narrowed at me and he said:

"Oh _really_?" He enquired. "Did I or did I not see you throwing a whole bottle of perfume on a homemade bonfire -stupid idea, by the way – praying for Aphrodite to help you_ not _liking Katie?"

I scratched the back of my head uncomfortably:

"Maybe…" I muttered grumpily.

"I'm sure I did." He said. "And not only to Aphrodite: you even told Apollo to protect you from his own bad luck when it comes to relationships; what were you trying to do? Get killed?"

"It'd still be better than liking…_that._" I said.

"_She_, Travis, Katie is a she." I ignored him, so he resumed from where he had stopped. "And I guess it is ok to be afraid of liking someone so different from you…"

"I'm not afraid!"

"You are, shut up and listen."

"Ok."

"Besides, you've always been a bit fickle when it came to liking girls, so I'm guessing that – since you've known Katie for ages now and based on the fact that you've started wondering about it after going through the fear of losing her - this is also probably the first time you actually have real feelings at risk of being crushed."

My stomach started to burn as Connor spoke. I could feel life leaving my body slowly.

"However, I should probably add that kicking a cow on our way here as an attempt to offend Hera so she would find a way to stop you from getting married was not only stupid but downright pointless as well. I mean, her stopping you from getting married wouldn't help you at all! If anything, it might just make things worse like you wanting to marry Katie while she doesn't even want to be in the same room as you…"

"Shut up!" My voice came out a note higher then what I had expected and the only possible explanation for that was the burning sensation in my stomach that made me feel as if I was about to barf even though I hadn't eaten anything since yesterday night. Connor finally stopped talking and I stood up from my desk and walked around the empty classroom we were in knowing the girls who had called him in were probably outside with their ears glued to the door trying to listen to what we were saying (a vain attempt that would leave them with nothing, as children of Hermes'; Connor and I knew just how not to be listened when we wanted to).

"So you really are on stage four now, aren't you?" Connor commented as he watched me pace from one side of the other, I turned to face him and raised an eyebrow:

"What's stage four?" My brother shrugged sadly:

"Depression." I chuckled:

"I'm not…" I started but stopped mid-sentence. "You know, I'm really feeling kind of down, now that you've mentioned it."

"You're feeling horrible if you're even willing to admit it." Connor yawned. "I know you well; the last time I saw you pacing up and down a room like this was when they told us Luke had betrayed camp." My brother and I exchanged glances and I knew we were both remembering the night Percy Jackson was found hurt by a venomous monster and told everyone about Luke's real intentions. Luke wasn't only an idol to us like he was to most of the campers; above all things he was our brother too. I sighed:

"Yeah…" I added sadly, sitting back down on a different chair this time and rubbing the bridge of my nose with my thumb and my index finger. "I'm really not ok, dude."

"That's what "depression" usually stands for." Connor said walking up to me and crossing his arms. "What triggered it?" He asked leaning against the wall.

I looked up and stared at him for a while, completely quiet.

"So?" Connor asked cocking his head to the side:

"Aaaargh!" I grunted snatching the pink iPod from my pocket.

"Her iPod triggered it?" He asked me, confused.

"_No_!" I said, rolling my eyes at him. "But it will explain my situation to you quickly enough." I added bitterly.

I put the mp3 player on a desk between the two of us and Connor sat down without taking his eyes from it.

"So…" He started. "Is it going to do something magical or something?" He asked me with sarcasm. I shot him a meaningful glare and he shut up, I flipped the iPod so we could see its back.

"What's this?" He finally noticed.

"_These" _I explained "are decorative stickers Katie glued to her iPod trying, I believe, to make it look even gayer than it already does."

"So?"

"_So…" _Every word weighed a ton in my mouth. "Among the little flowers, do you see anything that gets your attention? Anything different?"

"Of course; two letters."

"Exactly: a K and a T."

"Because K and T together sound like Katie, right?"

"Yes." I agreed. "But that was not what I thought at first."

Connor blinked twice.

"Oh, Travis, that's ridiculous!" He covered his face with his hands. "I can't believe you were so stupid."

"I'm not!" I replied. "Or at least I wasn't until this whole nonsense started!" I smacked my forehead. "The point is: I actually walked up to her this morning willing to talk about her secret crush on me over the years…"

"Oh…" Connor spoke as if he was facing some unusually terrible physical pain. "You're killing me right now. I'm so ashamed for you; I'm _co-ashamed_."

"I know!" I agreed with him, feeling my cheeks burn. "But you know me: I get stupid as soon as I admit I'm into someone. Suddenly, that cool dude disappears and all that's left is…" I gave it some thought. "a tall, skinny dork holding a stolen girly iPod with over 30 gigabytes worth of corny country music."

Connor nodded in silent.

"_Don't agree with me!"_

"Oops, my bad." He smirked. "But you have to understand it's hard not to agree with you when you look like you do right now." He moved his hands, gesturing towards all of me and I scowled. "So," he changed the subject. "Did you get to humiliate yourself or not?"

"No, I didn't, thank you very much." I replied because before I could _get_ anywhere near her, I saw her talking to…_him_."

"Ouch." Was all Connor had to say.

"Connor, have you _seen_ Beau Higgins?"

"Yes, I have."

"I can't compete with someone like that. He's…_delicious_."

"He is, he truly is."

"You don't know half of it!" I said waving my arms at him dramatically. "I have P.E. classes with him and you know what? When he takes his shirt off," I gestured towards my stomach. "It looks exactly like a George Foreman grill! You could have a barbecue party in there!"

"And that personality of his…" Connor started.

"He's adorable! I know!" I cried. "You'd think years of fighting monsters would give me _something _like a six-pack but look at this!" I lifted up my shirt a little "All ribs! I'm half god, half scarecrow!" The depression thing really got me down, I tell you. "While Mr. Hillbilly looks _all_ _godly_."

Connor chuckled:

"Don't call Beau that; we like Beau, remember?"

"_I_ don't like Beau." I sighed. "No, no: I like him – it's impossible _not_ to. Gods damn that serious expression and the little dimples when he smiles…"

"That was too much, dude, even for you."

"I know." I agreed without fighting. "I just have this whole new complex I can't seem to get over; I mean, it's not only that Beau is perfect and that Katie likes him –it's just that…if that wasn't already bad enough, I'm the total opposite of Beau and Beau is everything she loves."

"Beau is everything _women_ love, Travis. If he walked around with a box of chocolates and a new pair of shoes on his hands, he'd officially become a god among them."

I ignored him:

"When he walked away, I approached her. By then, I had noticed that the whole KT thing meant something else, so I didn't mention anything."

"Thank Gods. And how was your conversation with her?"

I stared at him trying to come up with a good answer and finally said:

"Remember that time we thought it'd be funny to hide Apollo's cabin musical instruments on the forges?"

"And it ended up breaking one of Beckendorf's new sword sculpting stones?"

"Yeah – remember how Hephaestus' cabin created a whole new set of highly poisonous, fire arrows just so the guys from Apollo could chase us?"

"Sure."

"My conversation with Katie made me think of that as "good times"."

"Ugh. That bad, uh?"

"How can I put it?" I said. "You know that mind trick in which you make a person say "fork" like five different times and then you ask them what they use to eat soup?"

"And they say fork because their minds are programmed to do so."

"Yeah – that's me right now. I've mistreated Katie for so long and so many times that now, when I try to act nice and prove to her that I'm – you know – likeable, I end up offending her."

"You offended her?"

"I didn't do it on purpose, ok? The more I tried to compliment her, the more she seemed to think I was mocking her."

Connor's eyes were filled with pity and I let myself fall on the chair I was sitting, hopeless:

"I think I better just give up while I still have _some_ of my dignity left." I commented sadly. "If you're right and I do like Katie for real, then I don't wanna be here when it all blows in my face. It's not like our life is already a picnic; I don't need love galore on top of it all."

My brother stared at me – his face looking more serious than I had ever seen – and he put one of his hands on my knee. I turned my face to look away from the ceiling and into his eyes and, for a moment, I could tell from his look just how worried he was; how much he cared for me.

Then he slapped me super strongly across the head.

"WHAT WAS THAT FOR?"

"Oh, I'm sorry." His voice was sarcastic and high pitched. "Did Connor hit the poor girly girl too hard for her taste?"

"_What_?" I said from the spot I had fallen at, rubbing my cheek.

"Seriously, dude, did you become a _lady_? What's up this whole "giving up" thing? Do you have any idea of how _stupid_ you sound?"

"I'm…I'm hurt and vulnerable, and all that other not so manly stuff people in love feel! Can't you understand that?"

"Travis…" I could see fire in my brother's eyes as he lifted me from the floor. "You listen to me now 'cause I'll only say this once: You're going through stage four, so I'll cut you some slack, but this has to end. This whole self-pity phase you're going through right now is even more ridiculous than the time Aphrodite cabin cursed you to wear permanent make-up."

"My eyelashes looked kinda good…"

"Ignore your ADHD for a second, will you?" He shook me by the shoulders to get my attention as we were both standing up. "We come from a very especial family, Travis, we have godly blood and you know what that means?"

"Constant mortal peril and way too many half-siblings?" He slapped me again:

"No!" He was silent for a second then shrugged. "Ok, that too but it wasn't what I meant!" He waved me off. "What I meant is that Gods fall in love too but do they ever give up? No, they don't! Do you know what they do?"

I stared at him blankly.

"They make sure they find the woman –and the occasional man, of course;" Connor and I shuddered with bad thoughts. "and they make sure they get them; they kick them where it hurts, they lie, they trick and they attack their self-steam, they curse their future and then when they finally get them weak enough that life is no longer worth living, THEY FORCE THEMSELVES INTO THEM AND GET THEM INPREGNATED WITH THEIR SPAWN!" This obviously didn't happen to the occasional men, of course. "And that, Travis, is what we are gonna do! We are gonna make sure you get Katie and we are gonna do it Greek Mythology style!"

He let go of my shirt and marched angrily towards the door looking a lot like Clarisse La Rue when she's commanding her army of Ares' dudes. He stormed out of the room, slamming the door as he left and I remained where I was, too astonished to move.

Connor's head popped up from the same door he had left a few seconds later:

"Ok, so maybe we are not gonna get Katie impregnated with your spawn or force yourself into her BUT THE FIRST PART IS TOTALLY GOING DOWN!"

He left again and I gave it some thought. Connor was right; I wasn't about to give up without a fight. Maybe I wasn't some type of perfect man or anything but there were a thing or two I could do (most of them related to pranking people and making their lives miserable, of course) and I could use that to my advantage even if that meant simply making sure Katie didn't get to spend her time with Beau, falling even more in love with him. Even if all I got from it was a bit more of time I to try and make her mine, I should give it a try and I should do it my way.

So I opened the classroom's door and yelled:

"Connor, wait!" From the end of the corridor, I could see him stopping his march and turning around to see me:

"What?"

I ran towards him:

"You're right. We will do whatever it takes – I mean, we don't need to create a rain of sperm or turn ourselves into a tortoise like Zeus or Apollo did but we can definitely do something, right?"

"Finally!" Connor said. "Welcome to stage five, bro."

I rolled my eyes at him:

"What's stage five, dude?"

Connor smirked the most devilish smirk he had, a grim I knew better than anyone from seeing it on my own face so many times before:

"_Acceptance_."

"Acceptance it is then." I said, an evil smirk of my own stamped on my lips. There was nothing Connor and I couldn't do and I was starting to believe this was no different.

**A/N: **_So, was it worth the wait, guys? I'm not sure if I replied to all of your reviews, I'm always surprised by just how many of you like this story so much –it's shocking really. I didn't find this one to be especially funny but Katie's part…well, I'm not going to say anything but, just so you know: poor, poor, __**poor**__ Katie. Have I replied to your review? Have I forgotten? Please, tell me if I did, usually I reply to everyone who allows PM's o is logged in (and even people who left a review with their regular username without being logged in), so be sure you'll get a reply if you leave a review and, if I forget, TELL ME. Please, review. It's the one thing that gets me excited about updating so don't leave me here waiting for nothing :~_


	5. Act 3 Katie

**A/N:**_Well, it's me. At last. No I won't give up on this fic or any of the others, I just really take a LONG time to update but the chapters are huge so, bare with me. Thanks so much for all the support messages and let's hope next chapter come quickly. Also, be prepared for an intense chapter. Especially if you're into Taylor Swift, haha. This is not a funny chapter, at least not entirely. Well, you'll see. I hope you guys like it! Let me know!_

_**Act 3:**_

_**Cowboy, Take me Away (as far as possible from those two)**_

**Katie**

It's five am on a beautiful Saturday morning and what am I doing? I'm riding shotgun on a pickup truck while the love of my life drives us to our very first real date. That's what I'm doing. Except I'm not, really.

The truth about my whereabouts this morning is a rather bitter, tragic picture involving –yes – one Beau Higgins on the wheel and me; Katie Gardner, right next to him on a pickup truck but we are not on a date and we are not _alone_.

We are not alone because the two worst creatures to ever walk on this planet are now comfortably sat on Beau's car back sit wearing overalls and cowboy hats while reading South Dakota trivia out loud.

Look, I don't mean to offend anyone but, seriously, won't Hermes ever _learn_? I mean, just look at what he produced so far; Luke, the two things sitting over there, Chris Rodriguez - who's not that much of a bad person, I guess, but he did join the titan's army and dates Clarisse La Rue. Would you really trust someone who engages in this sort of dangerous activities?

I mean, I see a pattern here!

"I'm bored." Connor said, his chin resting on his right hand as he stared out of the window. "Can't we do something fun?"

I rolled my eyes even though they couldn't see:

"Here's an idea for something fun, Connor; why don't you guys go home and go back to sleep?"

Connor opened his mouth to protest but before he could say anything, Travis pushed him to the side and placed each one of his elbows on a different front sit, projecting his face to front and basically yelling in my ear:

"_Boohoo, Katie!" _ He said opening the book on a specific page. "Don't you know that "Dakota" means "friend"?" He poked me 'till I turned around and then he pointed the line he had just read with his index finger and said smugly: "Be _friendlier_, Katie."

I hid my face in my hands and moaned loudly to the gods:

"Oh, Travis, shut up!" I knew he didn't mind though, he was having way too much fun with my misery.

"Say what you want to say, Katie, but Beau seems to be having fun." I heard Connor say.

"Beau's not having…" Next to me, his eyes on the road, Beau let out a small - barely noticeable - chuckle. "Oh my Gods! You _are_ having fun!"

He chuckled even more, but his cheeks went red as if he knew he wasn't supposed to be laughing:

"I'm sorry, Katie." He said outwardly. He did sound a little sorry, though. "It's just that, I don't know, you are always so calm and controlled – I can't help but to think it's funny to see you so grumpy."

I didn't know whether I should blush or slap him. My jaw dropped and I gagged before saying:

"You are enjoying watching me in pain?" I said half smiling, half scowling; sounding incredulous. Connor and Travis were quiet as we talked. Beau shrugged:

"You're not in pain." He told me with a smile. "You're just unable to control the situation and it frustrates you." I opened my mouth to protest but Beau gave a smile to die for and said: "It's cute."

Cute.

Ok, let's repeat the word once again because it sounded so nice:

Beau said I was being _cute_.

Now, in my head, as he said that; I could feel the earth stopping abruptly and then starting to spin, then I could feel my soul leaving my body slowly but in a good way –as if it was headed towards the sky, or the Elysium fields… I was so happy, I could swear I had sensed the smell of flowers and wet grass mixed with strawberry cupcakes. It felt like I had just had ambrosia and my body and soul were healed. I was a different person completely, flying high and finding a new life…

However, what happened in the real world was that I gagged again and blushed, staring at Beau unable to say a word, his hands still on the wheel and his eyes still on me with that wonderful smile on his mouth…And then Travis' head popped between our sits and he started whining:

"Katie! I wanna see the Mashed Potato Wrestling Competition!"

"The _what_?" Connor said while managing to snatch the trivia book out of his older brother's hands. "Now you're just making stuff up!"

"No, I'm not!" Travis put his finger on top of a paragraph. "It says right here that Clark has a whole day dedicated to potato related activities! _And such_!"

I smacked my forehead and Beau chuckled. Obviously the two idiots would be interested on an event dedicated to nonsense fighting and eating all day long; typical them.

"As much as I hate to be the bearer of bad news," I didn't hate it all, after all they've done to me that week, I'd be more than willing to see them weep. "…you kids already missed Potato Day."

"What? _No!_" I always find it disturbing when they speak in unison, Beau, however, just smiled:

"Well, that was back in August, it always is." He checked the Stolls' disappointed faces from his mirror and chuckled. "But don't worry, ok? I'll make sure you guys get to see it next year!"

This time, I was the one to check for their expressions. There was no way they'd still be here by next August! Ok, that was partly me wishful thinking but I checked it anyway. They exchanged glances for a nanosecond and I just couldn't tell whether they were feeling awkward or just checking the other's opinion on the matter. Before I could conclude anything cheerful though, they threw their arms around Beau in farfetched enthusiasm.

_WHAT?_

"Beau, you're the best!"

"We love you, Beau!"

Beau chuckled, shaking his head:

"Sure, sure. And I love you too, kids."

If I weren't so busy trying to glue my ideas of a right universe together once again, I'd probably have been bothered by Connor's yell of "Oh! It's Reba!" while pointing to the radio before the three of them burst into a loud choir of "He broke your memory last night".

Yes, that's the world I live in right now: a dark place where Beau, Connor and Travis are BFFs and I get stuck inside a car with the three of them while listening to South Dakota trivia and the best of 80's country music.

I'm pretty sure this situation is a result of what seems to be the Stolls' newest running gag that started out last Monday. I should've known the moment I woke up that morning though; my hair looked _flawless_.

* * *

Mary Ann walked up to me as soon as I crossed the school gates. She had a smile on her face and her voice was practically a swoon when she spoke:

"Good morning, Katie! Nice hair!"

"Thanks." I said, drinking from my coffee. I had overslept a little and hadn't gotten up as early as I wanted, meaning I had already lost the chance for my daily studies review. I kept walking, Mary right next to me, breathing loudly. She was so close, she almost stepped on my heels five times.

"Alright, what is it you have to tell me?" I didn't bother looking at her when I asked. We had just reached my locker and, as I organized my stuff, Mary leaned against Connor's locker with dreamy eyes and sighed:

"So, you and Travis…" Oh, I already hated that conversation before it began. I was used to this question by now but I clenched my teeth anyway. "You are not together, are you?"

"Don't go there. I already told you a thousand times we are not." I had my head inside my locker mostly because I had to get the right books but it helped that she couldn't see me rolling my eyes.

She was surprisingly quiet for a while. So long, actually, I was a bit surprised when she mumbled:

"So it's ok if I see him, right?"

I slammed my locker door swiftly.

"No, it is not."

"So you're into him?" One of her eyebrows raised and the crazy look on her eyes was a bit scary so I flinched a bit:

"No, not at all, not even a little." She opened her mouth to protest and I raised a finger to cut her off" _But_ it doesn't mean you wouldn't be better off dating a piranha fish instead of Travis Stoll." She giggled and I rolled my eyes at her; I was fighting a lost battle.

"So, you're ok if we date then?"

I sighed:

"Go for it." I put my backpack over my shoulder and scowled at her, I had hoped she'd leave me alone after that but she decided to follow me to the classroom going on and on about the awesomeness that was Travis Stoll (insert me making puke faces here).

"But the _coolest _thing about him…" I was only partially aware of the conversation but I recall her mentioning this at some point. "…Is that we had this awful start with the prank and stuff but he was, like, _super cool_ about it. So mature!" The puff that followed this sentence was totally not my fault, I swear, it _just happened._ "I mean it!" She insisted.

You see, by then, I was already skeptical mainly due to two things: one, of course, being the fact that Travis would never let someone walk away unharmed after fooling him. While, second being that, for her to have this opinion of him it meant they'd have to have talked previous to my arrival at school and that would mean Travis being at school before classes started. As if!

"You don't believe me!" Mary Ann yelped and I sighed, defeated. We were still walking through the still half empty corridors and I was losing my patience already so I dropped my shoulders and said:

"Yes, you are right: I don't believe you. I really think Travis and Connor will try to get you back for pranking them and that you'll regret ever setting eyes on those two." She opened her mouth but I went on before she said anything else. "However, you're a free being and I just couldn't care less for your crush on Travis." Also known as her sudden urge to die a slow and painful death.

To my surprise, Mary Ann smiled winningly at my comment. Well, not entirely a surprise, she clearly had been through some brain damage but still…

"I was warned you'd react like this."Oh Gods, I smacked my forehead. The girl had already been brainwashed.

"Really, Mary Ann? _Really?_" My coffee was downright cold now but I drank it anyway, anxiety made me do it. " He told you that and you believed him?"

"Of course I believe him, Katie!"

"You've known me for literally our whole life and, even though you just met the Stolls like two months ago, you still believed _them_ instead of me?"

Mary Ann's smug expression flawed a little as she seemed stunned by my reply; however, less than a second later she was back to the winning smile. It was with a less arrogant tone that she spoke though:

"Well, yeah, I believed them." She scratched her forehead. "You say all these bad things about them, Katie, like they are bad people or something…"

"They _are_ bad people."She ignored me:

"_Yet_, you claim to know them for ages and you keep walking around with them – up and down this whole town. You spend your lunchtime with them, you take them to dinner at your place…how awful can they really be?"

It was my turn to be stunned, she actually had a point. I stared at my own shoes just so she wouldn't see me blushing (I blush way too easily). I told myself that the only reason I even kept them company in town was to avoid them making a mess and at camp it wasn't like we were around each other every day or something…Before, I could come up with a clever response, Mary Ann took my silence as resignation and giggled:

"See? They are not that bad! Besides, Travis really surprised me!" He surprised me too but not in a good way. Never in a good way. "He talked to me earlier today…" Still skeptical about that part of the story. "And you won't believe what he did!"

Oh, I was pretty sure I wouldn't.

Mary Pulled a little brown bag from her backpack and said cheerfully:

"Smell this!" I had to think twice before I did that, I mean, from the way she was acting, there might as well be glue inside that bag.

"Peaches?" I raised an eyebrow.

"Georgia peaches!" She giggled again, jumping up and down like a puppy. "He told me he was thrilled by the prank and that he hardly ever got outsmarted so I deserved an award! He went around asking and he heard my favorite fruit was peaches! Katie, it's not even peach season but will you look at these? So juicy and pink! So beautiful! Smell it again!"

Oh, I was smelling it, alright.

"Oh, that's wonderful, Mary…" I tried to speak but she wasn't even paying attention anymore.

"You know, the only reason he even stole that calf was because he wanted to do something for us, for the town." I'm pretty sure he had done it because he finds joy in stealing but hey, who am I to burst a teenage girl's blissful bubble of ignorance, right?

"Yeah, yeah, whatever you say, Mary Ann, I'm sure you two are soul mates." I could say whatever I wanted to by then, as long as I was smiling, she'd think I was being nice. She wasn't listening at all. "Say, have you tried any of your Georgia peaches yet?"

That finally got her attention:

"Oh, no, not yet! I'm saving them for later, I always save the best for last!"

"Oh, that's adorable! Can I see them once again? I still can't believe he'd go all the way into getting you Georgia peaches! They've must been so hard to deliver this quickly!"

"Oh, I know, right? I told he was adorab-" I opened one of the hallway windows, checked if there was anyone on the patio and threw the fruits without thinking twice. "_What? Why?"_

She stared at me, mouth opening and closing a hundred times like a fish out of water and I could tell all sorts of violent thoughts were going across her mind when I said:

"Look, you probably don't understand why I did this…"

"You like him!"

"But I do not care for your interest on Travis nor Connor Stoll" Weirdly enough, 'till last Friday, Mary Ann was all over Connor and now this. "But I do know that they are evil, twisted people and that those fruits…" I pointed to the yellowish spots that once were Georgia peaches. "Those fruits are probably cursed or poisoned or something like that!"

Mary Ann rolled her eyes at me:

"_Oh please_! What sort of bad thing could come from _fruits_? You're acting crazy!"

"Crazy, huh?" I started counting on my fingers: "One, Snow White: eternal sleep. Two, Adam and Eve: Eternal Damnation. Three…" I stopped mid-sentence trying to find a way to say the next part. "Well, let's just say that I happen to have a relative who once accepted fruit from a man and next thing she knew, they were married and living in a far, far way land where her family couldn't visit!"

We stared at each other in complete silence for almost a minute. Mary Ann looked at me like I had just told her I had a flying pig to sell while I tried to maintain a serious expression. Since nothing was spoken after that, I said:

"I win." And started walking away. "Good luck with whichever Stoll you prefer, I have classes now."

Mary Ann would be mad for a while, she may even try to attack me later but, hey; what's a little cartilage and nail polish when you've faced poisonous scorpions and bulls made of metal? It didn't really bother me.

On my way to class, though, I caught a glimpse of Beau getting his things inside his locker and I sprinted towards him.

In a classy, discreet way.

Mostly.

"Hey there, stranger." I said leaning against the locker next to his in what I hoped was a seductively manner. He looked at me, surprised for a second, and then smiled:

"Why hello, beautiful, what are you all the way up here on this side of school?" I was shocked for a second when he called me beautiful but then slapped myself into normality again:

"Oh, you know, just checking if my old neighbor is doing alright." I tried a nice, white smile and drank from my coffee again. Nervous, as usual. "Ugh, this is cold." I said throwing it in the bin close by.

"You want me to go with you to grab another one?" He offered. I opened my mouth to say there was no need but then, for whatever reason, my last conversation with Travis popped in my mind. Yeah, I know, weird. Thing is, maybe Travis had a point. Maybe I was self-sabotaging and I needed to start opening up and being more out there so Beau could see me, maybe I should just tell him. I should be braver. He was so right, actually, that if he hadn't stolen my iPod, I might even think of him in a sweet tone today – but he did steal my iPod so I hated him anyway.

"You know what? I'd love it! Let's go."

We walked towards the cafeteria, in silence, at first and, before I could gather enough courage to say anything, Beau said:

"So, how was your weekend?"

"Oh, nothing much. I mean, nothing nearly as exciting as returning a prized stolen calf if you know what I mean." We both chuckled.

"Hey, you want me to take your books for you?" He offered politely.

"Oh, sure, that'd be lovely." I have no problem carrying my books, I mean, c'mon; I fight monsters - but I know it's important to let your man feel like he's necessary.

We were in silence again and, though I had told myself to be more "out there" I had just learnt that I was not good at it. Well, I kinda of had already noticed that but now I had it confirmed.

"Hm, Katie, I was wondering…" Beau started and my heart skipped a bit.

"Yes?"

"What are you doing this Saturday?"What?

_What? What? What? What? What? What?_

"Me? Nothing." Free as bird, absolutely available, ask me out, ask me out! "Why?" Let's get married!

"Well, I was wondering if…" You see, to this point, aside from the minor drawback that was Mary Ann's sudden crush on Travis, my great hair hadn't stricken me as a bad omen just yet but from this moment on…Things were about to get _real_ weird.

Before Beau finished his sentence, he looked sideways and then to his shoes and then back to me and then sighed:

"Hm, never mind, Katie. I just realized I'm super late for a meeting I had scheduled with Coach Frankling, so…Sorry for that coffee, maybe later?"

What? What? No!_ No!_

"_Sure." _There were tears running down my soul as I watched Beau walk away after handing me my books, I know it.

"_Hola!_" The tears in my soul were instantly replaced by ice cold despair.

"Travis Stoll!" I whispered lethally and he laughed at my face:

"Nice seeing you two, Katie, how was your weekend?" Maybe it was just me but he looked a little odd, like he hadn't slept at all but that wasn't big news.

"Well, I could ask you the same question!" I put my free hand on my hips, trying to look intimidating. "You steal my iPod, and then I don't hear from you for two days! You were supposed to have lunch at my place on the weekend! That was just rude! I'm so mad at you right now!" He smirked and his smirk made me realize something. Beau left because he must have seen Travis coming in our direction and he knew he'd ruin things. "I'm _so_ mad at you!" I slapped his arm.

"Well, I'm sorry if I don't let you know of every single thing I do, Gardner. Unlike you and the other citizens of this town, I happen to have a life of my own!" I raised an eyebrow at him and he rolled his eyes at me. "Besides, what are you doing here? Why aren't you having you pre-class suck-up or something?"

"It's a pre-class review, Travis! Something you wouldn't know about because you couldn't care less about your grades…" I stopped midsentence and then started slapping him nonstop.

"Why? Why? What did I do now? Or are you that worried I won't get into my college of choice?"

"Mary Ann!" I snapped. "What was that about the peaches?"

"Peaches?"

"You know what I'm talking about, Travis Stoll!"

"Oh, the Georgia peaches!" He smacked his forehead with bad acting and then smiled at me. "Pretty nice, huh? So pink! And the smell? Delicious!"

I glared at him and he chuckled as he turned around and started walking towards the classroom. He had no books in his hands.

"What did you think of the peaches, Katie?" He said knowing I'd be following him.

"I threw them away before she could even think about eating them, of course."

Travis made a face:

"Oh, too bad, then, they were pretty delicious!" He looked at my face and sighed. "I mean it, Katie, you just threw out perfectly good fruits." He was quiet for a second and then leaned forward so his face was close to mine as he whispered. "What would your mother think, huh?"

"You're lying!"

"Nope. Not at all." He shook his index finger in my face. "Poisoned fruit, Katie?" He pretended to be horrified. "That's a _crime_!"

I stopped on my heels:

"So what were the peaches about? Do you want me to believe you're actually interested in Mary Ann?" I crossed my arms at him. Travis' expression changed abruptly:

"Who knows? Maybe I am…"

"_What?_" Both my eyebrows went up.

"Oh Gods, no! You're so gullible!" He rolled his eyes at me and kept walking. "The peaches were decoys!"

"D-decoys?"

"I know you too well to try and harm your friends with fruit, Katie. Don't underestimate me."

"But then…?"

"You'll see." He shrugged me off and entered the classroom. I decided I didn't care as long as she'd live and followed him in.

Travis and I sat on our chairs even though the classroom was still empty. He had been very quiet since the "You'll see" line and it was pretty weird that Connor wasn't with him at all but I shook this thought off by assuming they were in the middle of a quarrel or something.

I picked up my notebook and started checking on my notes as Travis did nothing but stare at the black board for what seemed like fifteen minutes.

"Hey, Katie…" He mumbled.

"Yeah?" I didn't look at him, I just raised an eyebrow at my notes.

"We've known each other for quite a while, right?"

"You could say that, yes." Let the weirdness commence, people.

"We were both young, when I first saw you."

"Well, not _that_ young, I mean, you were _at least_ eleven." I said with my eyes still on my notes.

"I close my eyes and the flashback starts…"

"Flashback? What are you even talking about?" I chuckled.

"No, I mean…When you are fifteen, you feel like there's nothing to figure out and…" This time, I had to look up.

"Travis, what are you even talking about?" He looked nervous and this actually got me a little worried. "Are you ok? Did you and Connor have a fight?"

He looked at me and then back to the board.

"No, we didn't. This isn't about Connor and I. This is…" He looked at me again. "This is something else." He forced a smile.

"Ok, then, tell me." I put a hand on top of his. I had never seen him so distraught before.

"I'm alone, on my own, and that's all I know, I'll be strong, I'll be wrong, oh but life goes on…"

"Travis, you're not making sense. Are you alright?"

"You showed me something that I couldn't see, you opened my eyes and you made me believe."

I was starting to feel a little uncomfortable but I ignored it because I was genuinely worried. I hadn't seen Travis that vulnerable since… Well, I had _never_ seen Travis vulnerable.

"Travis, tell me what's going on, please. It's ok." I patted his hand, trying to sound comforting.

Travis looked me in the eye and smiled:

"So I've got some things to say to you."

"Say it, then!"

"I seen it all, so I thought, but I'd never seen nobody shining the way you do."

"W-what?" I actually blushed at this and let go of his hand.  
"The way you walk, the way you talk, the way you say my name…"

And then it hit me.  
"It's beautiful, wonderful! Don't you ever change…"

"OH MY GODS, YOU'RE QUOTING TAYLOR SWIFT SONGS!" I stood up at once, startling him.

"Katie, I…"

"I can't believe you!" I started smacking him senselessly; I was on the verge of tears. "I actually thought you were serious and yet it was just another one of your jokes on me!"

"Katie, I wasn't joking! Well, not entirely, I was…"

"Stop! Enough with this "I'm in love with you, Katie" crap! Beau was about to ask me out and you…You ruined it! And you're ruining it with your lies and the whole school think we have something and we don't and ugh! I hate you! I hate you!"

I stopped smacking him and started breathing in and out heavily.

"I'm going for a walk now. I don't want to talk to you anymore!"

I marched out of the class just to listen to his last yell of "Katie, come back! _You're the reason for the teardrops in my guitar!_"

* * *

As I said, that was only the beginning. Clearly, as less than a week later I'm sitting on a car, on my way to an apple picking festival in a nearby town with both Travis and Connor, so let me give you a quick summary of what happened on the next days of the week.

First, when I got back to class, Travis was gone. He wasn't back 'till third period – that was about the time Mary Ann showed up in tears, her perfect blond hair suddenly pink and purple, I should've imagined he'd go for her shampoo, typical him.

He didn't talk to me or gave me my iPod back (clearly the source of all his Taylor Swift knowledge), actually, he didn't acknowledge me at all during classes nor lunch. He didn't show up for cheerleading practices (thank Gods) and, for a while, I actually believed my words had gotten to him.

They didn't of course. I got home to find him sitting in the living room, talking to his brother and my father. By then, they had already become friends with pops and I was starting to get used to it since it wasn't exactly harmful.

'Till then, obviously.

"Katie-bear, we need to talk." My father spoke solemnly as soon as put my coat on the rack.

"Sure, what?"

"It's a serious matter, Katherine." Travis said while Connor nodded. This alone made me sure it wasn't a serious matter at all but I sat with them on the couch anyway.

"The boys and I have been talking." That was not good. Not good at all. "And we've decided it's better for you not to have your cell phone anymore."

"Frankly, Mr. Gardner, I'm surprised Katie even has a cell phone! Those things are extremely dangerous for demigods!" Connor spoke as my jaw dropped.

"Dad!" I begged. "I need my cell phone to almost everything I do!" That and Beau sends me text messages every week about his classes! It's our only source of communication.

"It doesn't change the fact that cell phones attract monsters, sweetie! I'm sorry but I've made my mind. No phone for you, not anymore. I can't risk losing you."

"Dad! This is Garden City! The one time I got attacked by monsters here was because they had my dyslexia featured on one of the news shows! Monsters don't come here! _Nobody_ comes here!" I could see Travis and Connor making agreeing faces with the corner of my eyes but my father made that worried expression I just can't say no to and bam, there went my cell phone forever. Well, maybe not forever, maybe I could still try to get it back from my father's drawer when he was out and check my messages.

"You know what, Mr.G?" Travis said. "It's too dangerous to still have this at your place. As camp counselors, we'll throw this out for you." Connor grabbed my cell phone and put it on his jean's pocket. He smirked at me and I mentally grabbed his throat.

"Oh, but won't you two be in danger as well? I mean, aren't two demigods worse than only one?" My father asked.

"Yes, explain this! Aren't you in more danger than me?"

"Don't worry about us." Travis said standing up. "It's about Katie we worry here." He patted me on the head with a smile and I scowled at him. "I'd do anything to keep her safe." My father, the poor gullible thing, smiled at the monsters in our living room.

"Well, I'm starving, what about that dinner, Mr. G?" Connor said.

And that was my awful Monday.

Then came Tuesday, when I tried to ignore Travis even though he spent the whole day sending me reviews on the songs I had on my iPod. He then, decided to show up the second Beau sat with me in the cafeteria. He wouldn't shut up about NFL and, of course, once it started, so wouldn't Beau.

On Wednesday, I didn't see any Stolls. I also didn't see Beau. Turns out they had found a common interest in hunting small animals and had skipped school to chase rabbits. Now, not only were the Stolls spending all of their time with Beau as they were also corrupting his perfect attendance record! That was unacceptable. I tried confronting them but I didn't see them that day. Well, except for dinner, when they appeared (without Beau or rabbits) for dinner anyway.

Then it came Thursday and Beau finally stopped by my locker to talk. It took about five minutes before the Stolls appeared. Those were blissful five minutes.

By Friday, I already knew what was going on; I knew Travis and Connor MO for way too long and I knew just how to stop it.

And that's how I got into this car, listening to Reba McEntire and considering how long it would take me to die if I locked myself in the car with a sock on the carburetor.

We finally arrived at the carnival, it was hardly eight am. Beau opened my door for me and went to pick up some of his stuff on the back of the truck but he didn't do this without playing with my hair and saying:

"Hey, relax, ok? The guys are cool, you shouldn't let them get to your nerves. Today is going to be fun."

"I know." I tried, smiling.

As he went away, Travis and Connor appeared next to me.

"Oh wow." Connor said though I couldn't tell whether he was impressed or just being sarcastic. "Are those tractors?" I think I heard him say as he rushed to help Beau. A real sight in his overalls and cowboy boots.

"Well, well, well…" Travis' voice came from right next to me. "If this isn't going to be a fun ride!" He smiled at me.

"Yes, yes it will!" I surprised him by smiling back. He raised an eyebrow.

"You sound overly confident."

"Confident?" I sighed. "Maybe."

"What's going on?" He chuckled and I could tell he was a little confused.

"Oh, nothing…" I started but then I approached my face to his. "I know what you're doing, Travis Stoll. I don't know why but you're deliberately trying to get in the way of my friendship with Beau." He tried to keep his cool but I could tell he was like a bird caught on a trap. I knew that look way too well.

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Oh yes, you do and that's ok because I don't mind." I pointed my finger at his chest, accusing him. "I don't care because I found a way to turn things around." He looked confused so I smugly explained my plan:

"Asking Beau out would be too outrageous, now wouldn't it?" I smirked. "Asking the three of you for an apple picking festival? Not so much."

Travis stared at me in absolute silence for the first time in ages. It had been so long since my last victory, I was starting to feel a little dizzy with power. I checked my back to see If Beau was approaching us and used the very few time we had last to throw this last piece of information on Travis' face:

"I don't know why you enjoy my misery so much, Travis, but I'm done losing in your games and I'm starting to take charge here. I like Beau so I'm not letting you prank him away from me just because that's your twisted idea of fun, you hear me? If dealing with you and your brother for a whole day is what it takes for me to spend some time alone with Beau, then I'm doing it. I have a plan and you're actually part of it, so enjoy." I was glowing with victory, I knew it. Beau and Connor appeared right behind me and I changed my expression immediately to a big innocent smile.

"So, who's ready for a great day of fun?"

I saw Travis smirk at me for a second as I turned my head to hold hands with Beau. The smile didn't look vengeful or mischievous as usual. It was different. It wasn't defeated either, it was just…new.

I heard him whisper right before we started walking towards the entrance:

"Clever Katie, clever Katie…" That part was a bit scary, I admit it but I had made my bed and I'd lie in it.

* * *

**A/N:**_ Intense chapter and this is just the beginning. I'm not joking here. I said before, though Sweet and Corny is funny at times, the main focus on this one is romance so, from time to time, we will have a chapter like this where comedy seems to give place to more, you know, dramatic, over the top teenage behavior. It's ok to dislike both Travis and Katie on this chapter, they are being totally evil. What is kinda cute, really, if you think about it. I mean, maybe Katie isn't the sweet, perfect person she thinks she is? We'll see. Hopefully sooner this time. X) _

_Please review and keep me going, you know I take ages but reviews really make it more important for me. I love you all for all the nice reviews and the "please keep going" messages._

_Really, I do! I can't believe this became so popular, I had no idea!_

_P.S.: Oh, and by the way, Potato Day? Totally real. Wrestling on mashed potatoes? Also real. I'm not even joking here._


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